Fire Emblem: Rebirth of Legends
by Alexander-Crossover
Summary: Written by windwarrior234 and myself. Cassandra was found by her adopted father Drake when she was an infant, and she was born with a wolf's tail and ears. Now after living a normal life for 20 years another of her kind has appeared, offering answers about her past. And unknown to her this will draw her into an adventure spanning both time and space.
1. Prologue: The Girl with the Wolf Ears

**Fire Emblem: Rebirth of Legends**

Cassandra was nearly blinded by the sun that poured through her bedroom window. She grumbled and pulled her covers up over her head then tried to go back to sleep.

"Cassandra! Now's not the time to be sleeping in! There's work to be done!" the girl's adopted father, Drake, called up the stairs. He wasn't a bad looking man, still youthful in appearance, though he still held quite a few years of experience under his belt. His slightly bearded face frowned ever so lightly as he waited for his daughter to come down. He sighed to himself. Honestly, that girl. Sometimes he didn't know what to do with her.

"Alright, dad, I'm getting up!" Cassandra shouted back. She threw off her covers and sat up slowly, yawned then pulled her dark grey hair back and scratched one of the silver-furred wolf ears on the top of her head. Not wanting to provoke another angry shout from her father she got up out of bed and moved to grab her navy blue work tunic from where she hung it on the wall the previous night. Once that was on she pulled on her overalls, as usual she took a minute to pull her silver wolf-tail through the hole that had been cut into the seat of the overalls and swished it back and forth a couple times to make sure the circulation hadn't been cut off. Finally she pulled her boots on, pulled her hair back into a short ponytail to keep it out of her eyes and grabbed the hatchet hanging by the door.

"I'm up, let's get to work," Cassandra said as she exited her room and tromped down the stairs.

Her father nodded approvingly to her, giving a light grin. "Summer time feels like the best time to get lazy, but we can't afford that!" he teased. His dark brown hair was cut rather short, almost like a military cut, though it did help stay out of his eyes while he worked. "There's wood to chop, stuff to make, things to do...you know the deal." As the local lumberjacks, the town counted on them to help craft a lot of the things they used in daily life. Furniture, framing, firewood, all of it came from them. It was a simple life but a taxing one. He didn't have any problems with that, though; it took a lot to make him tired. "But first, breakfast! Can't exactly work on an empty stomach." he remarked.

"Got that right." Cassandra grinned, "What have we got?"

"I made pancakes this morning with some maple syrup and, of course, bacon." Drake replied with a grin. He knew just how much she loved bacon. Perhaps it was because she was part wolf? It made sense. She had such a large appetite, especially for a girl, but he was more than used to it by now.

As expected, Cassandra practically pounced on her food and began to wolf it down only slowing down to chew enough so she wouldn't choke. "Thanks dad, it's good!" she thanked Drake after she swallowed a mouthful then went right on to the next one.

Drake gave a hearty laugh. "Just remember to chew!" he reminded her. Cassandra was almost like an animal on the prowl when it came to food. It often meant that he had to clean things up afterword, but ah well it was the life he chose to live.

Cassandra sighed contentedly and sat back after she finished her breakfast, the area around her plate cleaner than usual, as she waited for her father to finish his food. It didn't take long for Drake to finish his own meal and he stood up, stretching a bit.

"Alright then! Now that there's fuel in the tank, it's time to get to work." he stated.

The father-daughter lumberjack duo certainly turned heads around here, mostly because no one knew what Cassandra was. Drake had found her twenty years ago when she was just an infant and he had raised her since then. She didn't quite look like a twenty year old girl, but she was.

"Do they ever get sick of staring at my ears and tail?" she asked rather loudly, which made several of those that were staring turn back to their actual jobs. "You'd think after twenty years they'd be used to these." She twitched her ears and tail as she spoke.

"People are enamored with a good mystery," her father spoke. "But at the same time, there's a fear of the unknown as well. So while people want to know what you are, they're almost afraid of what they'd find out. Personally I don't care either way; you've always been my girl and nothing changes that. Just try not to let their curious or fearful stares get to you too much."

Cassandra sighed, "I'll try," she said begrudgingly.

It didn't take long for them to pass to the woodcutting shack. Drake had lived there once, before he adopted Cassandra, but it was no place to raise a child so he and several of the other villagers had built him their current home closer to the center of the village once he decided to raise her alone. As a result the shack had been refitted to include tools for woodcrafting.

"Alright, Cassie, let's get to work!" Drake remarked, cracking his knuckles. Yep, today was gonna be just like every other day in their quiet little town. Nothing out the ordinary today, so he was sure things would be fine. There was no reason to expect that today would be the day everything would be flipped onto its head...

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Prologue: The Girl with the Wolf Ears

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"98...99...100!" Cassandra split her 100th piece of wood and looked up as she wiped the sweat from her brow. "Not bad so far," she commented as she grabbed a drink from the water skin at her side.

Drake chuckled a bit. "Doin' good so far, eh? Well good! If we manage to finish this all quickly enough, we might be able to call it an early day." he stated. Of course the chances of that were slim, mostly because they would have some wood crafting to do after words.

Cassandra laughed, knowing full well it was little more than a pipe dream, "That would be great." She hung her water skin back on her belt and set another log to be chopped on her cutting stump. She raised her hatchet up, "One-oh..." she stopped and turned her head, sniffing at something.

The older man noticed his daughter's lack of action and frowned, noticing her distant gaze. "...Cassie? Do you smell something?" he asked her. He had long known that her sense of smell and hearing were much higher than a normal human's. She was highly acute to her surroundings, like most people of her race, he assumed.

"Someone..." Cassandra's ears twitched, "is being attacked!" without another word she took off at full tilt, hatchet still in hand.

"Wait, Cassie! Gah, that girl...always running off..." Drake muttered. He took up his own axe and followed suit, not about ready to let his daughter get into trouble all by herself.

Six brigands were gathered in a cleared area of the forest around a large brown wolf that was bleeding from several deep axe wounds, their leader clutched a heavy axe made of steel and prodded the creature with foot, causing it to growl but not move. "Still alive, amazing. And when he turns back he'll be worth a fortune."

"But Alrik, he got Merv, and Lewy and..." one of the last of the brigands tried to protest

"So? I think twelve men is a worthwhile price to pay considering how rich we'll be when we sell him," Alrik shot back. "Now help me tie him up before he starts moving again."

"Bandits!" Cassandra's shout alerted them to her presence, "What are you doing here?!" She demanded, hefting her hatchet in both hands while keeping her distance.

"Eh? Looks like there's another wolf there, boss!" one of the bandits remarked. "Just imagine the price we'd get for two of 'em!" At this some of the remaining bandits prepared their axes.

"You bastards aren't getting away with -my- daughter!" Drake remarked, coming onto the scene.

"Or that wolf, especially if he's like me!" Cassandra tensed and threw her hatchet at the nearest of the bandits, which sliced through his side and flew right back to her hand. Before he could counter Drake acted and cut down at him killing him.

Alrik gritted his teeth, "Alright boys, don't let this payday slip away. Kill the man but don't hurt the girl too bad. She'd be worth even more to the right buyer with an exotic look like that!" he ordered as his remaining four subordinates spread out to keep out of Cassandra's throwing distance.

"Hmph. You small-time crooks couldn't hope to hold a candle to me." Drake remarked, brandishing his axe rather easily. These thugs just never learned until they were six feet under. That was fine with him, though. "Cassie, don't go out of my sight. You're a good fighter, but they mean business. One false move and you're a goner." he advised his daughter.

"I can handle myself!" Cassandra retorted but was forced to dodge as one of the brigands came a bit too close. She spun her hatchet once and threw it right through the attacking brigand's body, slicing him in half before it flew back to her.

Seeing that his daughter would be mostly fine, Drake decided simply to concentrate on the battle itself. Swinging his axe in a swift arc, he easily cut through one of the bandit's torso. The single blow was enough to be fatal, but to prevent any suffering Drake quickly brought his axe down, finishing off the man with a quick death.

Cassandra threw her hatchet at another bandit, hitting him in his free hand before he could get too close. He charged right as she caught the hatchet and she managed to block his swing then spun around and chopped his head off.

It didn't take Drake long to finish off the last of Alrik's men, jumping up and bringing down a powerful vertical slash which cut the man's body down the middle with a wide open bloody gash. "Tch, what a mess..." he muttered under his breath. However, he looked up at Alrik. "Looks like you're out of body guards. Ready to die like the dog you are?"

"Hah, says the man who raised a dog. Did you scratch her behind the ears when she was growing up!" he taunted Drake as he swung, scoring a painful but non-lethal hit across Drake's chest.

"Tch..." Drake scowled deeply, preparing his axe in counter-attack. "My girl may be part wolf...but she's more human than you'll ever be!" he retorted. He lifted his axe and swung it downwards hard, aiming a powerful blow at the bandit leader's skull.

Alrik pulled back just enough that Drake's Axe only cut his chest, not his head and he gritted his teeth at the pain. He backed out of Drake's reach and turned to face Cassandra, who threw her axe at him, hitting him in the side.

"Why do you care about him so much? Is he your brother?" Alrik demanded.

"He might be. If that wolf is like me then he might know what I am," Cassandra shot back.

"I can tell you what you are: my meal ticket. Or maybe I'll sell him and keep you for myself," Alrik licked his lips.

Cassandra grimaced, "You're sick! Now die!"

While Alrik was distracted by his daughter, Drake came up behind the man, intent on finishing what he started. With another mighty heave, he brought his weapon down into the evil man's back to end him once and for all.

Alrik cried out in pain as the axe carved through his back. "Blast... I was to be rich..." he managed to groan out as he collapsed in a growing pool of his own blood.

Cassandra sighed in relief as she wiped the blood from her hatchet. Seeing her father wasn't interested in the fallen bandit leader's still intact steel axe she retrieved it. "He had money at some point. This axe is in good shape." She commented before she slung it into a loop on her work pants. A groan from the wolf reminded her why she had been fighting so hard and she moved to crouch by the overly large wolf's side.

"Can you talk?" she asked the wolf.

"Chances are he'll need some sort of medical attention," Drake mused with a frown. Of course he wasn't sure what healers in town would want to see some kind of wolf, but perhaps he could convince someone to come out to help. "Though there's no promise he understands us."

The wolf uttered three strange words, definitely not a growl, before his body glowed and the fur seemed to evaporate. The wolf's body shrank until a man lay in his place. Cassandra started and stepped back, as he looked almost exactly like her, except he was male, only wearing a fur tunic and white pants around his lower body and his hair, wolf ears and tail were dark brown. His eyes were closed.

The older warrior was surprised when the wolf shifted into a human form, his frown of curiosity only deepening. "So there -are- more like Cassie..." he muttered to himself. He had thought that his daughter was one of a kind or that she was cursed as an infant or something. To think there were other people like her in the world. "Alright, I'll run to town to get a healer. You stay right here, Cassie, and take care of him." he instructed his daughter.

"How can I do that?" she called as Drake took off back to the village. "I guess I could try to use the last of this," she said as she sat down and pulled a mostly spent healing herb out of one of her pockets, which she always kept just in case she hurt herself on the job. She pressed it to one of the wolf-man's wounds. The herb dissolved as the wound closed up.

The wolf-man stirred and opened his brown eyes part way then said, "I f...found you," before he fell unconscious again.

"Found me?" Cassandra's eyes widened in surprise. Unfortunately she couldn't wake him again and was forced to just wait.


	2. Chapter 1: The Messenger

One day in the middle of their usual work, Cassandra and her father Drake kill some bandits trying to take a wolf-man into slavery. The wolf-man is the first being like herself that Cassandra has ever seen and he first words to her are "I found you".

With the first possibility of learning what she is finally given to her, Cassandra insists they take the wolf-man back to their village to be healed rather than just healing him and leaving him in the forest, despite her father's protests. Once he wakes up, Cassandra hopes to get some answers from him.

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Chapter 1: The Messenger

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Drake was cautious around this strange wolf man. It seemed that he somehow knew about his daughter's origins. While that made his daughter incredibly anxious, he was still wary. Just who was he and what did he want? He hoped that he'd be able to answer their questions when he finally woke up. He could only imagine all the excitement going on in his daughter's head at the moment.

Cassandra tapped her foot impatiently as the village healer administered healing herbs to the wolf-man's wounds. "Why can't we have a staff-user in this village?" she asked aloud, "Or at least some of those vulneraries around here?"

"We're a bit out of the way and we don't have a church in this town." Drake reminded her. "Besides, things like this don't happen often around here so there's never been a need for such things. There hasn't been a war in almost a century."

"Well I need to know who this is, and why he said he 'found me'," Cassandra said.

"Well rushing me isn't going to help," the healer said. "Just let me finish then let him rest. He probably won't be awake until tomorrow with injuries like this so you'd better just go back outside and back to work."

"We can't do that," Drake shook his head. "If those bandits had any friends they might come looking for them so we'll have to keep people in site of the village until we're sure they've passed."

"Very true," the healer admitted. "Though you managed to take care of the last batch, another group could show up and they might be stronger than the last. So perhaps instead of just going back to work, you could see if there are any other fighters in the village to help you out? I'm sure there are some people trained with some kind of weapon."

"Not many, we'll see who's willing to fight." Cassandra said before she left the healer's house.

"She's certainly determined about this..." the healer commented. Drake nodded in agreement, sighing ever so lightly.

"This is the first time she's met anyone who knows anything about her past. She must be so excited..." he stated. But it was without a doubt dangerous...Just what was going on here?

By nighttime only the three villagers that were part of the militia had joined Cassandra and Drake on guard, armed with bronze spears and wearing pots as makeshift helmets.

"So far it's been quiet," one of them commented.

"Yeah," Cassandra sounded bored. "Hey dad, any sign of them!?" She called to where Drake was on look out.

"None yet!" Drake called back. But that didn't mean there -were- no bandits. It was still very quiet..."Just be careful anyway!" he warned his allies. He didn't want anyone getting their butts killed by any brigands.

A few minutes passed and Cassandra sniffed, "Smells like sweat." She looked at one of the other militia, who looked back at her nervously, "And not from you," she added, her eyes hooded. The militiaman grinned sheepishly.

"Aye, I can see some movement...I think we've got company." Drake replied with a frown. "Looks like we've got a fight on our hands."

"Gyahaha! Alright boys this fruit looks ripe for the plucking. Alrik's loss will be Roderick's gain!" With the bandit leader's call three dozen bandits wielding sword, axes and lances came into site from the darkened woods and fields around the village. Roderick stood two heads taller than the rest of his men and carried what looked like a poleaxe over his shoulders.

Cassandra growled and hefted up the steel axe she'd gotten the previous day, "This is nuts!" she declared.

"There's a lot of them..." Drake muttered. "But they honestly don't look that strong by themselves. If we take them on one by one, I'm sure they'll be whittled down to nothing soon enough." He prepared his battle axe for the coming skirmish. Good thing they had a little back-up, but they'd be at a pretty big disadvantage.

"This is crazy!" The militia closest to Drake shouted.

Two axe wielding brigands charged forwards, Cassandra took a gash across her chest only to strike back, the heavier axe she'd used killing him in one hit. The other charged at one of the militia who tried to lunge at him, missing and getting a massive cut down his arm, which made him scream in pain.

Drake was quick to protect the militia man and cut down the bandit who had hurt him, brandishing his axe. "Tch, if you get too hurt, fall back! We don't need anyone dying a pointless death!" he remarked. He kept his axe in hand and quickly killed another bandit who got too close.

"We can't fall back!" Cassandra protested, "If we let them into the village they'll start looting!"

"Which is why we need to kill as many of them as possible without getting hurt ourselves!" Drake shouted back. "Use your head and don't just blindly rush into battle! Brute force by itself never won any wars."

A loud howl from inside the village caused everyone to freeze in place. Cassandra turned around just in time to see the giant brown wolf burst through the healer's house door, taking the hinges and a portion of the wall with it. The moonlight glistened off his fangs as he gave another piercing howl and charged out to them, stopping at Cassandra's side.

"Are you going to help us?" she asked. The wolf looked up at her and nodded.

"Do you have a name?" she asked again.

"Volug," he said.

"A t-talking wolf? what's going on?!" one of the closer bandits cried upon hearing the wolf speak.

"Who cares, it's just a big wolf. Try to take it alive or at least keep its pelt clean. It'll look good around my shoulders!" Roderick shouted, urging his men forwards.

Cassandra's looks turned to a fierce smile of confidence and she tensed herself, drawing her hatchet with her tail wagging fiercely behind her. "Just try it!" she challenged.

"You've awfully overconfident like your buddy was, but you'll fall the same way he did." Drake warned the bandits. "If you run away now, you'll get to keep your lives!"

"What use is a life with nothing valuable in it!" Roderick shouted back.

No sooner had the words left his mouth then Volug charged into the middle of his crew, his jaws tearing out the throat of a bandit only five feet from where Roderick was standing.

Seeing his man fall so easily Roderick stated to panic, "Attack! Kill the wolf!" he shouted, prompting most of the bandits to round on the wolf and charge at him, some lingered, not sure if they should be more afraid of their leader or the giant wolf in their midst.

"Allow me to back you up!" Drake remarked. He jumped forward, swinging his axe and slicing through a lancer who had drawn too close to Volug for comfort. Just as he thought, these bandits weren't too tough individually. Just take down their numbers one by one and they'd all fall soon enough.

Most of them ignored Drake however and went straight for the giant wolf. Most of their weapons just glanced off his thick fur, only a couple making small cuts, and any who drew too close were eviscerated by Volug's teeth and claws. Two lancers ran towards the village, hoping to take this opportunity to break past what they thought were the weaker guard. One had his head taken off by a lucky throw from Cassandra's hatchet and the other was speared in the gut by one of the militiamen.

Seeing that his allies could handle the majority of the bandits, Drake decided to handle the bandit leader himself. "Now, see what disregard for others gets you? Nothing but death. You said before a life without value isn't worth living. And you are so right! Time for you to die, worthless cur!" With that, he slashed at Roderick with his axe.

"No, I won't die here!" Roderick declared as he took the axe in his arm before he struck back at Drake.

Seeing that there was no risk to the village anymore, Cassandra moved to close the distance between herself and the bandit leader.

Drake dodged Roderick's attack then pressed forward with his own, swinging his axe out at the brigand once more. "You're completely outmatched! Give up now and you might still live!" he announced.

"Never!" Roderick swung back, he missed once then took a second swing and sliced Drake hard.

Taking the slice, Drake took a few steps back from the wound. It wasn't anything fatal, but it certainly hurt a bit. "Fool...Very well then. Die!" he remarked, taking up his axe again and slicing at the man in retaliation.

Roderick stumbled back despite his wounds only to be struck in the side by Cassandra's thrown hatchet, which she easily caught on the return trip. "Last chance!" she cautioned.

"He's certainly a stubborn one." Drake remarked, preparing his axe for a finishing blow just in case Roderick decided not to flee.

"Gah! Persistent whelps! I'll be back!" Roderick shouted as he turned and fled.

"Get back here!" Cassandra shouted after him. She took a few running steps after the fleeing bandit leader but slowed to a walk and stopped, panting. "Damn guard duty," she cursed.

"You should take it easy now. You've really pushed yourself all day." Drake reminded her. She really did burn her energy out rather quickly when she got over excited. Couple that with her excitement over Volug's appearance and she was a mess.

"If I see him again I'll rip him apart!" Cassandra declared as she turned around. Volug was licking the blood off his fur, spitting out some errant pieces of bandit still stuck in his teeth. Cassandra whistled when she saw the devastation and bodies surrounding the wolf, "Damn, he's strong."

"Very much so..." Drake agreed. "He must have gathered quite some deal of battle experience in the past if he managed to kill most of those bandits by himself with barely any wounds." It was impressive to say the least. He wondered just where the strange being came from.

Cassandra approached Volug and she called to the militiamen, "Help us clean this up! WE can't have these bandit corpses stinking things up."

"Yes, of course!" one of the militia called as they dropped their spears and set about the morbid task of cleaning up the battle site. Volug picked up some objects in his teeth and deposited them in front of Drake and Cassandra.

"Hey look, a vulnerary!" Cassandra grabbed up the small skin of healing liquid.

"Yes, we should save that for later. It should prove to be useful." Drake agreed. He looked about the field and sighed. "Well better start cleaning up the bodies...Gah, what a mess..." At least they weren't going to be anybody's problem anymore. Though their leader decided to high-tail it, fine by Drake's standards. If he ever showed up again to cause trouble then he'd just kill him and be done with it.

Volug was a great help in disposing of the bodies, digging a hole for a mass grave far enough from the village that no one would stumble upon it, except for the local animals.

It took an hour to drag the corpses to the mass grave and bury them deep enough to keep the stink from seeping through. When they returned to the village, Volug was still in wolf form.

Even though the moon was high, the excitement from the bandit attack was keeping CAssandra awake. She looked Volug over, "Barely a scratch on him."

"And considering how he was wounded just a few hours ago, it's amazing he recovered so quickly. It must have been exhaustion that played a part in weakening him rather than the actual battle." her father said.

He frowned ever so lightly. "Though we still don't really know where he came from or who he is. A name is all we have."

When Cassandra stopped to take a breather Volug moved and began to sniff her all over, startling her. "Hey! What the?" she tried to pull away but Volug was too fast for her.

Volug sat back on his haunches and looked her, then shook his head. "Too old."

Cassandra glared at Volug and growled, her wolf ears twitching in irritation, "Old?!" she bristled. Drake had to avert his eyes as Cassandra smashed the flat end of her steel axe over Volug's head. The sturdy wolf didn't even budge despite the force of the blow. "I'm going to bed, dad!" she added before she stormed away.

"Cassandra! Ugh...such a hot-headed woman she is..." Drake muttered before looking to Volug. "So...you were looking for my daughter? She's adopted, mind you, but still my kin. Who are you, precisely, and where did you come from?" he asked. This was his chance to get some answers, so best to take advantage of it.

"Hatari," Volug replied.

"Can't say I've heard of the place." Drake responded.

Volug shook his head, "Not h-here."

"Not here? You mean you say you come from some far off land?" the warrior asked.

Volug nodded.

"And you came here in search of her?"

"Zakiyah. P-princess," Volug said. He looked after where Cassandra had disappeared into her home, "Too o-old"

"You thought my girl was some long lost princess or something?" Drake asked, frowning in confusion. "Well she was just a baby when I found her 'bout twenty years ago. No one knows who she is or where she came from. She was just...sitting there in the middle of the field."

Volug began to speak in a strange tongue, apparently conversing with himself. He then shook his head and looked up to Drake. "You, s-sleep. I w-watch. Rep-pay healing."

"If you're certain...thank you then, Volug. Take care." Drake went into his house after this, though he had to wonder: just where was this Hatari place and what -was- Volug? There were so many unanswered questions. He dreaded having to find out.


	3. Chapter 2: A Faraway Homeland

The mysterious man, Volug, has revealed himself to Cassandra and Drake. He has been searching for the princess of a far-off land named Hatari, which no people in this world seem to know about. Eager to see if she is truly the one he seeks, Cassandra plans to go with Volug.

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Chapter 2: Far Away Homeland

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Cassandra and Drake had slept in until the midday sun was high in the sky the day following the bandit attack. No one had moved to awaken them, knowing that everyone needed sleep after facing two bandit raids in one day. While Drake was still asleep, Cassandra stood at her window still in her undergarments as she watched Volug, still sitting at the edge of the village like a well-trained guard dog. She smiled, her own wolf-tail wagging in anticipation. "I have to go with him," she said to herself.

"So eager to leave already?" Drake asked as he stood by the door. He had gotten up a short while ago, a bit later than usual but seeing as they did face two groups of bandits yesterday they deserved the rest. However he did figure his daughter would want to depart with Volug he told her about this Hatari place. The man frowned a bit. "It's going to be extremely dangerous. We don't even know where this Hatari place is, let alone what the people are like."

"They're like me and him, what more do I need to know?" Cassandra countered, turning away from the window. She reached up to feel one of her wolf ears, "I've never known why I had these ears and tail before. Now I have a chance to find out. I don't care how dangerous it is!"

"I know you're eager to find out more about yourself, but think it over a little bit more. Are you sure it's wise to go with someone you barely know to some place you don't even know really exists?" Drake asked of her. "I'm not opposed to you going but there's a lot of things suspicious about the situation. Think cautiously."

"I'll try. I need to ask Volug so many things. But first I need to bathe." Cassandra moved to grab a clean tunic and pants from her clothing, stopping only to grab her hatchet, just in case, before she exited her room.

Drake sighed after she left the room. "I just hope she doesn't make a big mistake with this..." he muttered to himself. He supposed that things could always be a bit worse, but could he really let his daughter go so far away for some reason or another? Did she even realize that there was a chance she wouldn't come home?

Cassandra hadn't dressed as she walked through the village, it wasn't like she got any more stares than normal in just her undergarments and she didn't want her clean clothes to be covered in sweat so early. She paused for a minute then walked over to Volug as she headed out to the bathing pond. Volug looked up at her, not seeming all that tired despite his entire night spent on watch.

"Volug, can you come with me? I want to talk to you about this Hatari place," she said.

Volug kept staring at her for a minute than nodded, got up, stretched and followed Cassandra as they headed for the bathing pond.

"I know it's a bit sudden, but I've never met anyone like -me- before...so I can't help but be curious." Cassandra stated as she walked. Volug simply nodded in understanding. He was a naturally silent person and his native tongue would be very hard for her to understand. He knew some of the new tongue but he wasn't the most fluent in it, either.

"What...do you want to know?" he questioned her in his quiet voice. Cassandra couldn't even begin to think of where to start.

"Oh, so much...Everything!" she admitted.

Volug thought for a minute. He began to speak in the ancient tongue which only made Cassandra raise an eyebrow. "Umm, OK," she said as they reached the bathing pond.

"I-I'm not too g-good with modern talk," Volug admitted as he sat on his haunches by the pond.

"So that' weird voice is some ancient language?" Cassandra asked as she set her clean clothes and hatchet by the pond's edge.

Volug nodded, "Beorc use it for magic."

"Beorc?" Cassandra asked. "Well look away, I'm getting in the water."

Volug nodded and averted his gaze. Cassandra stripped off her undergarments and slipped into the pond, diving under water briefly to get her hair wet.

"So...what's a 'beorc' anyway?" she asked, glancing back over to Volug once she was sure the water covered her. The wolf paused to think over the right words for a moment.

"Human." he stated. "Different from us...laguz."

"Laguz? ...Is that what I am?" Cassandra asked, her eyes wide. Suddenly she had a name to go by. She wasn't a mutant or some cursed child, but a member of some foreign race.

"Yes."

"Well we're the only laguz on this continent as far as I know, I never even heard of laguz until now," Cassandra said as she began to rinse the knots out of her dark silver hair. "So there's laguz and beorc, humans and..." she looked to Volug for an answer.

Volug shook his head, "Both humans, just diffferent. Beorc knowledge, laguz st-strength."

"So laguz are stronger and beorc are smarter?" Cassandra asked.

Volug sighed and lay down, speaking a few phrases in the ancient language. [This is too hard to explain to you with such fractured speech. Why did I have to lose track of those two when we came here?]

"Umm, alright," Cassandra turned away to continue washing and Volug closed his eyes to get some much needed rest.

meanwhile...

"Ugh, we are -unbelievably- lost!" the red-haired laguz remarked, a deep scowl on his face. He spared a glance at his green-haired partner, who remained calm despite the frustration. "Are you sure you read that map right? I think we're supposed to be going the other way!"

"I know we're going the right way, Jaul," the other wolf replied with a roll of his brown eyes. "You're just impatient."

"Then why the hell aren't we there yet?! Tch, this sucks..." Jaul remarked. First they get separated from Sir Volug and now they were hopelessly lost in this world. Just peachy.

"Complaining won't help." Kazim reminded him with a sigh. He would admit it was annoying that they seemed to have lost their way, but reacting like a child wouldn't help their situation. "We'll find him soon, I'm sure."

"We should just rely on our senses, not these strange beorc tools," Jaul muttered to himself. What a pain in the wolf tail.

"You know I can hear you right?" Kazim asked. He folded the map and put it in one of the pouches of his belt. "Perhaps we should rely on our senses here," he sniffed at the air.

"Finally you're making sense." Jaul crouched down and began to sniff for tracks.

Kazim watched for a minute as he smoothed down his tunic, "Do you smell anything, Jaul?"

Jaul sniffed, "I think... I smell sir Volug, he's nearby!"

"You're probably smelling his tracks, Jaul," Kazim replied. He sniffed at the air, "But I do think I smell him over this way."

"Hey, same difference!" Jaul replied. He stretched a bit, his dark brown skin vest lifting up his body as he did so. He didn't wear a shirt underneath it, so his chest and abs were visible underneath them. It was uncommon for male wolves to wear shirts. Jaul was a simple guy, so he wore a simple pair of white pants and a pair of sandals as well, easy for traveling the desert. "C'mon, let's hurry up and get going!"

"Hey wait up!" Kazin called after Jaul as the red wolf took off, forcing him to run off after him.

Cassandra was still cleaning herself when she caught the scent of something approaching on the wind. She moved close to shore and took a hold of her hatchet. "Volug," she hissed, "Someone's coming."

Volug's eyes opened and he sat up, sniffing at the air. [Smells like...] he spoke in the ancient tongue.

"Just be ready. That asshole Roderick could still be lurking around," Cassandra cautioned.

"Sir Volug!" Jaul called out in proud glee. "We finally found you! Sorry we took so long!" He then noticed the female laguz bathing in the pond and found himself blushing extremely brightly. Such a beautiful specimen to be sure...but was she not wearing any clothes?

He didn't have time to focus on this as Kazim came up and thwacked him in the back of the head. "Forgive him, he gets overexcited." he muttered. "It's good to see you're safe, Sir Volug."

Cassandra relaxed slightly, but kept her hatchet in hand, "Friends of yours, Volug?" She asked the big wolf.

Volug nodded, "Jaul and Kazim. Came with me." Turning to the two laguz he began to speak in the ancient tongue. [It's good to see you again. I was afraid you were lost on the other side of the continent, or killed.]

[We got lost because we were following that stupid map Kazim tried to use,] Jaul glared at the green wolf laguz.

[No the map is accurate, you just kept leading us off course every time you smelled something interesting,] Kazim countered.

[Speaking of interesting, who is this, Volug?] Jaul turned to Cassandra, his eyebrows raised and his mouth turned into a smile he hoped she'd find attractive.

"Hey! Can you guys at least talk to me in a language I can understand? And you shouldn't stare at a woman when she's bathing!" she added to Jaul.

"Our apologies." Kazim quickly covered his eyes, earning a glance from Jaul. "My name is Kazim and this is Jaul. We came here with Sir Volug to find the princess of Hatari."

"So I gathered that much," Cassandra muttered. "Ugh, would you guys mind leaving me alone for a moment so I can finish up and get dressed?! Hard to talk about important crap when I'm trying to take a bath."

"Of course." Kazim grabbed Jaul by his vest and pulled him into the surrounding trees.

Volug looked to Cassandra, "Go with them?" he asked.

"Just look away, Volug, and keep an eye out for anyone else," Cassandra replied as she went back to cleaning herself. Volug nodded and turned to face away into the woods.

It didn't take much longer for Cassandra to declare herself clean, climb out of the water and clothe herself. She picked up her hatchet and called, "Alright You can come out now, I'm done."

The two younger wolves re-emerged, with Jaul slightly disappointed that the pretty laguz girl was clothed again. However, Kazim was prepared to get down to business. "This was an odd way to start things off," he muttered.

"I'll say. So what's the deal with you people, anyway?" Cassandra asked, a bit impatient to get some answers.

"It won't be a story you'll believe easily but we come from a place called Hatari on the continent of Tellius," Kazim replied. This made the girl frown in questioning.

"I've never heard of either of those places before today," she admitted.

"That's because neither of them exist here. We came here from another realm through a special place called the Outrealm Gate. This strange place allows travel between time and space itself," Kazim said.

"So you're from another continent, or another world?" Cassandra asked.

"That's the best way to describe it." Kazim nodded.

"So what's with the axe?" Jaul asked.

"Umm it's to chop wood and to fight," Cassandra replied, as though the answer should have been obvious.

"Don't you shift when you need to fight?" Kazim asked.

"Shift? You mean turn into a wolf like Volug?" Cassandra asked, turning her gaze to the large brown wolf who was standing by her side.

"Like this!" Jaul gave a howl and his body was bathed in red light, he dropped to all fours and a moment later a red-furred wolf was standing in front of Cassandra.

"All laguz are capable of transforming like that, into various creatures. We are of the wolf tribe so, obviously, we become wolves." Kazim explained, observing the awed expression on Cassandra's face.

"So, I can do that, too? I've never done it before," she admitted.

"Because you've had no one to teach you here. Even children are taught how to shift at a young age," the green wolf replied.

"But where do I even start?" Cassandra asked.

"Well... I don't know," Jaul admitted, he shifted back to his human form, "We've never had to teach someone how to shift, our parents taught us and I guess I forgot."

"So why did you change back right now?" Cassandra asked.

"Transforming uses a lot of strength, with the exception of royal laguz we can only maintain our animal forms for a short time," Kazim explained.

"What about Volug?" Cassandra again turned to the brown wolf, "He's been a wolf non-stop since last night."

"Volug knows how to 'half-shift' as it were. It lets him maintain his wolf form indefinitely but while weaker than if he were fully shifted," Kazim said.

"So why do you stay in that wolf form so much, Volug?" Cassandra asked.

"More c-comfortable," Volug said.

"OK." Cassandra turned back to the two younger wolves. "Well I don't know how I'm supposed to even start learning how to shift so until you, or someone who knows how, can teach me I think I'll stick with this." Cassandra swung her hatchet back up and on to her shoulder.

"Hmm..." Kazim watched Cassandra's motion. From the way she handled it she was clearly very familiar with how to swing an axe. "Strange, most laguz consider it a disgrace to use beorc weapons in battle, for our bodies are weapons unto themselves."

"Yeah well I think it works just fine," Cassandra replied. "And like I said my body isn't a weapon yet so I'll use this 'beorc weapon' whenever I can."

[She was not raised in our world, Kazim.] Volug reminded the young man. [She would not know the ways of the laguz.]

"Ah...yes, that is true..." Kazim replied. "Well...it may be wise to bring you back with us to Hatari. Even if you are not the princess, you should still learn how to shift and the pride of being a laguz."

"Not sure about the 'pride of being a laguz' but going to Hatari sounds like the only way I'll ever learn more about what I am," Cassandra said. "So who is this princess you're talking about?" she asked.

"Zakiyah, the daughter of Nailah, the queen of Hatari," Jaul said.

"Zakiyah and her father were attacked by beorc slavers while Nailah was abroad on a mission of dire importance to Tellius. The queen's husband was a fierce warrior but he was killed and the infant Zakiyah was taken. They escaped through the Outrealm gate to elude trackers," Kazim explained.

[I thought you were the queen's daughter when I first smelled you, Cassandra, but you are too old to be her,] Volug spoke in the ancient tongue.

"Yeah, she is too old." As he saw the look of anger form on Cassandra's face, Jaul quickly explained what he meant, "Zakiyah was kidnapped a year ago and you're fully grown so you can't be her, unless you somehow grew up in under a year."

"Nope, I've lived here with my father, Drake, for 20 years," Cassandra replied. "Sorry to be a dead end to your search."

"Since you are not the princess, I think we can deem it safe to say that she isn't in this realm," Kazim admitted. "Though if you truly wish to accompany us to Hatari, you best speak it over with your father first and foremost. It is not exactly across the street. There is a likelihood that you shan't see him for a long time if you decide to leave."

"Yeah..." Cassandra agreed softly. The prospect of just leaving her father behind alone filled her heart with sadness. She couldn't just abandon the man who had taken care of her all these years...but she wanted - no, needed - to know more about the place of her possible ancestors. Could she have been taken through the Outrealms as well as a babe? It would make sense.

Cassandra shook her head then stopped and sniffed the air. "This smell... it smells that that bandit who attacked last night."

"You're definitely laguz, I can smell another nearby as well. You say he's a bandit?" Kazim asked.

"One attacked our village last night. He's probably gathering more forces, or he's on his way back!" Cassandra hefted her hatchet. "I'm not letting them attack us in broad daylight while everyone's out working!" She declared before she took off after the smell.

"She's an eager one, isn't she?" Jaul remarked with a grin. "Hehe, I like a woman with some passion!" Kazim only sighed, shaking his head. Sometimes he wondered why he put up with this idiot.

"Well we can't very well let her go off alone, can we? Come. We can help fend off some pitiful bandits." he insisted. Volug agreed, and the three wolves quickly chased after Cassandra.

"Come with me, men, the village isn't far. Just let the mages deal with the wolf!" Roderick declared, raising his poleaxe over his head. There were 30 more bandits travelling with him, all armed with a variety of swords, lances and axes but more importantly two fire mages, one staying to either side of Roderick as the moved along.

"Tch, this guy again...letting him live last night was a major mistake. Just where does he get all of these men, though? Between his friend and last night, that was at least forty-five men..." Drake muttered to himself. He had heard word about bandits being sighted yet again and he had come out to investigate. He hadn't been expecting yet another army of them coming out this time.

"Dad!" Cassandra called as she approached him. "Looks like that bastard from last night is back." How annoying. it was definitely a mistake to show scum like that any mercy. Oh well. They'd fix that right now.

"Who are they?" Drake asked, seeing the red and green haired men with wolf ears and tails approach with Volug.

"More people from Hatari. We're called Laguz," Cassandra said.

"Can you two fight?" Drake asked.

"Of course we can, just leave this rabble to us!" Jaul declared.

"Think carefully, ignoramus. There are fire mages among their number," Kazim pointed to the two red-robed people standing near Roderick.

"And that's a problem for... laguz?" Drake asked. It was funny using such a word to describe his daughter.

"We of the beast tribe are quite vulnerable to fire magic, if they attack us we might not last long," Kazim explained. "You must be Drake, Cassandra's adopted father. If you can, try to kill the fire mages before they get too close to us."

"Anything to keep my daughter safe," Drake affirmed.

"Hmph. I didn't think bandits were intelligent enough to use magic..." Cassandra muttered as she prepared her hatchet. Killing the lancers and axe fighters wouldn't be too hard for her, but the sword fighters would give her trouble. She'd just have to hope the wolves could handle most of them.

"Regardless, let's get things started." Kazim stated before he shifted into the form of a large green wolf. With a howl, he leaped forward, attacking a nearby lancer. Jaul was quick to join in, finishing off the lancer with a quick pounce and bite into the man's neck.

Volug followed after them, killing a sword fighter by biting his head and twisting until it came off. Cassandra charged into the fray, throwing a hatchet at a nearby lancer and striking him in the side, only to get a javelin in her shoulder for her troubles. She growled, caught the hatchet on its return and threw it again, cutting the lancer in half. Not wasting any time, Drake charged straight towards Roderick and the two fire mages at his sides.

Jaul was forced to dodge a hand axe that was sent his way before he darted towards the attacker, mauling him with a powerful snap of his jaws. The wolf laguz quickly dodged when a myrmidon tried to lop off his head, but Kazim was kick to leap up and bite into the man's arm to try and tear it off. Drake, meanwhile, jumped towards one of the fire mages with his axe, aiming for a swift kill. Mages often weren't too durable so it was no surprise that it only took one hit to take off the mage's head, not giving him enough time to cast a spell.

"You again!" Roderick bristled, "and more wolves. Why must you insist on being such a thorn in my side!?"

"As long as you threaten my village and my daughter I will be here to kill you," Drake countered.

"Gya! Try and get by me!" Roderick swung his poleaxe at Drake, creating a small crater where he hit the ground when Drake dodged aside.

Drake took advantage of Roderick's slow movements and jumped at him, heaving his axe towards the bandit leader's neck to end the battle once and for all. Once their leader fell, no doubt the rest of these curs would freak out without someone holding them all together.

While Drake's swing was strong, Roderick's neck proved too thick to sever with one blow and he staggered back, holding a hand to his bleeding wound.

The bandit army was crumbling under the assault of the four wolf laguz, until Jaul and Kazim were forced to revert after finishing off a myrmidon.

"Crap! Cover us for a minute while we recharge!" Jaul shouted as a sword cut into his side, forcing him to pull it out and kick at the attacker, only to miss. Volug came to his aid, ripping the sword out of the man's hand before diving on him and tearing him to shreds. Cassandra spun her hatchet and took aim at a lancer charging towards Kazim. Her rapid throw took his head off with one hit.

"You're made of tougher skin than I thought, oh well. I can fix that!" Drake remarked. He then spun around rapidly a few times, looking as though he became a spiraling twister, before he viciously slammed his axe down through Roderick's torso.

Roderick gurgled as he felt the blow cut deep and blood began to fill his lungs. "B-blast! And after I paid so much for those mages..." he managed to say before he fell over dead.

"Roderick's dead! Fall back!" One of the other bandits called. Without their leader they quickly dispersed.

"Hunt them down," Volug growled out before he took off after the survivors.

"Let him go. He will make short work of them in their panicked state and this will keep them from attacking you again," Kazim said.

"That looks painful," Cassandra remarked upon seeing the cut in Jaul's side. She poured some of her vulnerary's contents on her javelin wound before passing the vulnerary to Jaul.

"Thank you," Jaul said as he applied the ointment to his own wound. "I must say though you fight as a beorc you have strength and a ferocity in battle that many laguz would envy, Cassandra."

"Guess I've got some laguz pride after all." Cassandra replied with a grin. "That should be the last we ever see of those scumbags!"

"Your village should be safe now!" Jaul agreed. "They were cocky with their numbers, but Sir Volug is an extremely experienced fighter. Even in his half-shifted state, he can probably take on any of your generals, so a group of brigands like this won't do much to him."

"Even so if he is not back by nightfall I will go to search for him," Kazim said.

"Until then I can invite you back to our village. It's the least I can do for helping me protect everyone from another attack," Drake offered.

"Heh, much appreciated!" Jaul replied with a grin. So long as he got a bit more time with Cassandra, it was all well and good in his book! Cassandra only rolled her eyes, already figuring what he was hoping for. Not going to happen.

"Well, may as well head back now," she commented. "Besides, I want to know more about this Tellius place and the Outrealm Gate. It does sound really important."


	4. Chapter 3: Cassandra's Departure

Having routed the bandits and finally killed the persistent Roderick, Cassandra returns home with her father. "Laguz", she finally has a name to put to her strange appearance and with Volug, Jaul and Kazim she plans to depart for her homeland as soon as she has packed her possessions. Drake is reluctant to let his daughter go but he can't deny her the chance to see her homeland and find her people.

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Chapter 3: Cassandra's Departure

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Drake wanted to go with his daughter, he really did, but he had many responsibilities here at home. His heart was heavy, watching his daughter head off, possibly never to return, but he kept a strong face as he saw her off. "Just...take care of yourself, Cassie, alright?" he said to her, embracing her in a tight hug. "I love you and I hope you find the answers you seek."

"Thanks dad," Cassandra returned his hug. "I promise I'll come home someday." Cassandra couldn't prevent a few tears from escaping her eyes as she pulled away, her backpack of possessions and travel supplies on her back. She moved to join Jaul, Kazim and Volug, who had changed into his human form for the moment.

"We'll do our best to keep her safe, sir." Kazim spoke up to Drake. "Harm won't come to her."

"I should hope not," the warrior replied. "Keep yourselves out of trouble. I don't want to hear about anything bad."

"Don't worry, I won't let any harm come to this beauty," Jaul said as he smiled at Cassandra.

"Right..." Cassandra rolled her eyes.

"We go," Volug said before he half-shifted into his wolf form.

As the four Laguz departed, Drake sighed and returned to his home. He had to do something to help Cassandra on her journey but what? He went into his room and dug out some of his savings.

"Not much but maybe I can hire her some help..."

A couple days later...

"I don't normally come to such a backwater place, but work is scarce these days." The hard faced mercenary sat at Drake's kitchen table. "What's the job?"

"I want you to protect my daughter. She set out to the northeast two days ago. If you hurry you should be able to catch up to her. You can't miss her, she has silver wolf ears and a silver wolf's tail." Drake passed the sack of gold across the table.

The cleric standing at the mercenary's side picked up the bag. "500 gold."

"It's not much, Layla," the mercenary said.

"But we can help, and you said work is scarce, Isaac," Layla replied.

Isaac sighed, "Alright. We'll do it."

"Thank you," Drake stood up. "There's one extra thing I'd like you to do when you see her." He moved over to a locked cabinet and pulled out a bundle wrapped in cloth. "Give this to my daughter when you see her. It's an heirloom she'll be able to use." He passed the item to Isaac.

"Alright, I can do that," Isaac said as he accepted the bundle.

"We'd better start moving or we won't be able to catch her," Layla suggested in her soft voice.

"Right," Isaac stood up and the two of them left.

*meanwhile, with Cassandra's group...*

The anticipation for this journey was incredibly high, but Cassandra was still anxious as well. She wanted to see what Hatari was like for herself, but first they needed to get to this Outrealm Gate place which, according to the wolves, was in Sacae. Not exactly a stroll down to the park, but doable with some time.

As they emerged from the last of the treeline, Jaul dropped to the ground. "I think we should take a break now," he suggested.

"Tired already? Well we have been walking for a while..." Kazim commented. Cassandra was grateful for a little rest herself, but part of her was too impatient to sit down for too long.

"Well the quicker we get there the faster we can rest, but I guess the final call is up to Sir Volug." she remarked.

[We should rest, if we exhaust ourselves we will be susceptible to bandit attacks] Volug said.

Kazim nodded and Jaul smiled, "Well he said we should rest, so let's rest."

"That's fine with me," Kazim agreed. He decided to settle down to rest his tired feet. After so much walking, it was enough to tire anybody out. Cassandra pouted a bit, but she didn't put up much of a fuss about it.

"So, what's it like in Hatari?" she asked.

Jaul smiled as he began to describe their home. "It's a nation in the desert. Our cities are all built on oasis and they give us everything we need."

"We have learned to work the land and not take any more than necessary to sustain ourselves. Laguz, beorc and branded all live there in cooperation and without prejudice," Kazim continued.

"What are branded?" Cassandra asked.

"The Branded are people that are born out of the union of a beorc and a laguz." Kazim explained. "In many parts of the world, there is heavy prejudice against them since they were, at one point, considered to be an abomination against the goddess. However, this is not so and eventually this error in history was corrected. Still, bigotry remains and some people still choose not to mate with someone out of their own race, some for more logical reasons than mere bigotry," he explained.

"Logical?" Cassandra gave Kazim a skeptical look.

Jaul coughed, "There's a side effect: after the child is born the Laguz parent loses their ability to shift."

"Oh..." Cassandra said. "Hasn't that caused problems?"

"Not in Hatari. Though the shock of losing one's shifting powers is great at first, most parents have learned to live with it and now that it's common knowledge they are able to accept the consequences before they enter into such a union. Some learn to fight even without transforming but so far none of them have attempted to use Beorc weapons," Kazim explained.

Cassandra smiled and spun her steel axe, "Well, I might be able to help them with that."

"That would certainly be interesting to see," Kazim admitted. Not many laguz ever thought about using beorc weapons. Perhaps if they lost their shifting abilities, but he doubted that was going to become a common occurrence. Still, perhaps such a thing would help to bridge the gap between their people even more.

"Hehe, I wonder…if I were a beorc, what sort of weapon would I want to use?" Jaul wondered with a chuckle.

"Perhaps a healing staff," Kazim suggested.

"Hey! I wouldn't be some healer watching everyone else tear things apart! I'd be part of the action!" Jaul protested indignantly. "I'd rather a sword or maybe even an axe! Heh, maybe get myself a wyvern too. Now -that- would be kinda awesome!"

"A wolf riding a wyvern? Now that I'd have to see," Cassandra laughed.

As Jaul and Cassandra shared a laugh at the absurdity and Kazim rolled his eyes with a playful smile, Volug suddenly stood at attention, his fur bristling slightly in anticipation. "We are being watched." he stated plainly.

"What?! Tch, I should have known there'd be other bandit groups around here," Cassandra remarked with a growl. "Looks like we'll have to deal with these scumbags ourselves."

"And I was having such a good rest as well," Jaul complained as he stood up.

The bandits were clearly visible across the plains, a small number of brigands and lancers all led by a ranger holding a heavy sword over his shoulder.

"This is going to get rather tiring," Kazim noted.

There was a sudden pulse sound as a magic pulse appeared in among the four laguz and a young man with black hair and carrying a steel sword appeared. "Good, I made it in time," he said.

"Gah?! Who the crap are you?!" Cassandra remarked in surprise, her axe already prepared to chop this strange newcomer to pieces. However, Kazim gently gripped her arm to prevent her from acting rashly, though he was still on guard himself.

"Friend or foe?" was Kzaim's simple question.

"Friend. Your father, Drake, hired me to help you on your journey, Cassandra. My name is Isaac and my partner, Layla, just teleported me here. She will be along soon," Isaac held out a cloth wrapped bundle to Cassandra. "Your father asked me to give you this."

Cassandra accepted the gift and began to un-wrap the cloth. A letter fell from the cloth and Cassandra bent down to pick it up. She opened the letter and read it aloud for everyone.

"Cassandra, my daughter. This axe is the Wolf Beil, given to our family decades ago by house Ostia when our family served in their army. Now that you're leaving on this journey I feel you should have this. May it keep you safe." Cassandra pocketed the letter and pulled the cloth off of the axe. It was a magnificent steel weapon with the image of a howling wolf molded on to the sides of the blade.

Cassandra took the Wolf Beil in her hands and gave it a couple experimental swings. "It feels like it was made for me," she said.

"Well the gods must be smiling on us right now 'cause your timing is perfect!" Jaul remarked, gesturing to the brigands in the distance. "Those thugs look like they're ready for a fight, and no doubt they noticed your flashy, unexpected entrance."

"They've picked up speed," Kazim noted.

The Ranger leader of the bandits raised his sword and shouted, "Kill them all. I am Glass the peerless swordsman of Sacae!" His golden eyes shined and he ran his hand back through his jet black hair.

"Looks like their leader really is itching for a fight." Cassandra smirked. Wielding her new axe, she narrowed her eyes at the oncoming brigands. "Alright, let's put these cocky bastards in their place!"

"Hold. Be wary of archers." Isaac warned them. "They could easily snipe you from a distance if you let them. Just keep your guards up." He may only have been a hired sword but he wasn't about to let his allies get themselves killed in his first battle alongside them. That would look bad on his part. He only hoped Layla would hurry up.

"Right, watch for archers," Cassandra said as she readied her new axe. She charged at the nearest lancer, dodged the first swing of his lance and leapt up, bringing the Wolf Beil down on his head, slaying him in one strike.

"Impressive power..." Kazim commented before he shifted into his wolf form. He wasn't about to let a beorc weapon show him up however, and he pounced forward, driving his teeth into the neck of a nearby fighter. Isaac was quick to jump in, slaying the man with his blade quickly.

"Don't waste time." he remarked. "Make it swift." Kazim frowned a bit at the young man's comment, but merely nodded.

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Jaul charged, shifting into his wolf form as he ran for an archer. The archer tried to fire only to have his bow bitten in half by the red wolf. Volug followed and finished him off.

"You seemed awfully concerned about making their deaths swift." Kazim commented as Isaac cut his way through another swordsman, forcing the defeated man to the ground as a corpse.

"I prefer not to draw out a fight if it can be avoided. Besides, I don't like torturing my opponents with a drawn out death." Isaac replied after a brief pause. Accepting this answer, the green wolf nodded in respect to the young man before he leaped forward at another opponent. He took a cut from the man's sword, but he managed to end the myrmidon quick enough.

"What's with their leader?" Cassandra wondered, looking at the man with a deep frown. "Those eyes don't look natural at all."

Glass observed as his men were being cut down and chewed apart by the wolves. "Bah! useless every one of you. I'll cut them down myself!" He hefted his heavy sword and charged at Cassandra.

"Those eyes of yours, they are so unnatural. What kind of freak are you!" Cassandra shouted as his sword clashed on her axe.

"I wouldn't call me a freak with those ears and tail sticking out! I am Glass, my swordsmanship makes the gods themself tremble!" Glass declared. He slipped past Cassandra's axe and managed to slice her across her front.

Cassandra just gritted her teeth and bore it. "I doubt you could make any god tremble!" she countered as she swung and missed with her new axe.

Jaul was quick to join in Cassandra's attack, leaping towards Glass and latching his jaws onto the man's arm, making him cry out in pain. "Gah, let go of me you damned mutt!" Glass cursed as he kicked the red wolf in the stomach, forcing Jaul to let go with a yip of pain. A bash from his sword was enough to knock the wolf to the ground.

"Jaul!" Cassandra called after him in concern. She growled in anger towards Glass and took her hatchet out before throwing it at him quickly. He dodged the first strike, but the axe hit him in the side on its return.

"Annoying bitch!" Glass swore as he slashed Cassandra with his sword again. Cassandra swung at him with her hatchet against, but missed.

"Mind if I cut in?" Isaac asked, slashing Glass from behind. Glass gasped and staggered forwards then backed away from the two, keeping them away from his back.

"Damn, what kind of fight is this?!" Glass remarked. "Tch, all ganging up on me, eh? Too scared to fight alone?"

"Whatever happened to being the sword that made the gods tremble? If that's the case, then fighting us shouldn't be a problem for you." Kazim replied calmly. He allowed a small smirk at the irate expression on his opponent's face.

"Gah, I'll just kill you all!" he shouted in rage before he dashed forward, slashing at Kazim, who jumped back, before he went to attack Isaac, clashing blades with the young mercenary. Cassandra went to throw her hatchet again, but she frowned to herself. She couldn't throw it without risking hitting her ally instead.

An arrow hit Cassandra in her shoulder and she gritted her teeth, yanking the arrow out she turned and threw the hatchet at the archer who had just shot her. "Damn annoying archers," she growled. Despite her rage she was starting to feel the strength ebb from her body.

Cassandra was suddenly bathed in bright blue light as she felt her strength return. A voice called from some distance, "Good I made it in time."

"Good timing Layla!" Isaac called as he dodged another swing from Glass.

"I knew this physic staff would be worth the gold," Layla commented. "At least I didn't get here too late."

"Healer?" Volug questioned, though he nodded in approval then moved closer to Layla to guard her from anyone who might take advantage of her lack of weapons.

"Cassandra, we'll let you and Isaac take care of Mr. God Sword. We'll handle the rest of the underlings!" Jaul called to her before he jumped onto the back of a nearby bandit. He bit into the back of his neck to snap it.

"I won't lose!" Glass swung at Isaac and missed.

"Quell your ego," Isaac replied as he jumped up and summersaulted, slicing his sword hard into Glasses neck. Glass only had time to gurgle as he fell, his body dissolving into a pile of dust as he fell to the ground.

Cassandra gasped in surprise when Glass's body suddenly disintegrated into nothing more than black dust. "W-What the hell!? Why did he just?" She had no idea what could have caused something like that to just occur. Isaac was scowling in confusion himself, never having seen anything quite like it before.

"That...is strange, yes, but we should assist our allies with the remaining bandits before we ponder this any further," Isaac stated.

The laguz girl merely nodded at him before she shook her head and took out Wolf Beil again. "Alright, let's get wild!" she remarked.

Volug rent asunder a brigand who came too close to Layla in one bite. The remaining bandits all fell to teeth and blades in a matter of minutes now that Glass was dead.

"Ugg!" Cassandra groaned as she kicked the dead body of a bandit away, "Are we going to be chased every step of the way to the outrealm gate?"

"This was just an unfortunate incident of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I'm more concerned about what precisely happened with Glass's body. You say it just...disintegrated?" Kazim asked a deep frown on his face.

"Yes. I landed a fatal blow and that's what happened. No blood just… dust." Isaac replied.

"Hmm...just what could cause that?" the green wolf wondered.

"It sounds like some sort of dark magic," Layla commented unsteadily. "Could Glass have really been some sort of undead creature?" That was a very worrisome thought. She didn't like the idea of the undead roaming the lands.

"What would an undead creature be doing leading a horde of living bandits?" Jaul asked. The very idea of that sounded ridiculous!

"Well he's dead, let's just see what we can take and move on," Cassandra said. "The sooner we get away from here the better."

"I agree, waiting here would just be asking for trouble." Isaac nodded.

After the party left the field, a woman began to move amongst the dead. She was six feet tall with long green hair, tanned skin and brown eyes. She wore the robes of a Sacaen and had a katana sheathed at her side.

She moved to stand over the pile of dust that had been Glass and just shook her head. "As I thought, Glass was merely a man with an overinflated ego. But at least he seemed to retain his personality so this was not a total loss."


	5. Chapter 4: Mystery of the Dread Isle

Elibe. 1100 years ago dragon fought man in a war called the Scouring...

Mankind vanquished the dragons thanks to the efforts of eight heroes. These eight mighty generals brought peace to Elibe. The continent was divided into nations, and the people have enjoyed an easy prosperity.

The hero Hartmut settled in the east and founded Bern, famed for its military might.

St. Elimine moved west, and her sacred name flourished among the artisans of Etruria.

The horseman Hanon's legacy lived on with the nomads of her beloved plains of Sacae.

The birthplace of the knight Barigan is now home to the renowned Knights of Ilia.

The berserker Durban's final glory was to create a warrior's clan in the Western Isles.

The archsage Athos is said to have retired to the barren wasteland of Nabata.

The heirs of the champion Roland themselves became the lords of the Lycian League.

100 years ago the king of Bern, Zephiel, broke the seal on the Demon Dragon. His goal was to return Elibe to the dragons and exterminate humanity. Thankfully his efforts were stopped by Roy, a young lord of Lycia, and peace has returned to the land.

However there was one other champion that few know anything about…

Valor, the Dread Isle. It is here that Bramimond, the enigma, meditated and invited all the darkness into itself in order to gain the power to best dragons and in doing so wiped it's being clean of personality and emotion, becoming nothing more than a mirror of those who faced it until its death.

Twelve decades ago Valor was the site of a great battle. A man consumed by dark magic attempted to open the sealed dragon's gate and invite dragons back into the world and created and army with which to accomplish his goal. He was stopped by three young lords of Lycia and their closest allies led by a young tactician, whose strategic skills saved the world. History itself seems to have conspired to keep this war unknown to mankind, but despite the best efforts rumors and whispers have reached the ears of a young tactician named Luke.

Wishing to study the tactics of a man who saved the world from darkness and dragons, Luke has set out for Valor with his friends Patrick and Quana. He believes that by studying the land unchanged since the great battle 120 years ago he will learn how a single man's tactics changed history…

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Chapter 4: The Mystery of the Dread Isle

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The dread isle, Valor.

It was considered dangerous and foolhardy to travel here, but the place had lost some of its reputation a long time ago when a group of powerful warriors came here several times and returned without a single person missing all due to a great, powerful tactician, or so the legend went. Luke grinned to himself as he and his two comrades traveled through a thick forest. "You know, this place doesn't seem so bad." the dark-skinned youth commented. "With a name like 'Dread Isle,' you'd think the place would be covered in skulls and dead bodies."

"According to the old stories, the Dread Isle only earned its name because it was being used as the base of operations for a deranged madman to carry out horrible arcane experiments. But the same group of warriors that you're trying to learn from was said to have destroyed him and his creations," the sole girl of the group explained. Quana rolled her eyes a bit. "By itself, it's not very scary at all. Maybe a little foggy near the shoreline, but that's about it."

"There's no denying that a lot of people died on this island, though," the last member of their group spoke up, a cautious tone in his voice. He looked around carefully with his steel grey eyes. "Some say that the spirits of the dead still linger here, waiting for their torment to finally end."

"Ah, you worry too much, Patrick." Luke replied with a chuckle. "Don't tell me you believe in ghosts of all things?" The armored youth frowned indignantly at him.

"H-Hey, there's plenty of logical reasoning to believe in ghosts! You, a magic user, should understand that there's a spiritual side to things!" he protested.

"Yeah, but I don't believe in those kinds of silly ghost stories." the young tactician replied, giving a cheeky grin. "Now maybe if it was some sort of elemental spirit, I'd be more worried."

"Honestly, Luke, do you even know where we're going? We're looking for that old temple where that battle took place, aren't we?" Quana inquired of him. Sometimes she didn't know why she let him do these stupid things. Someone had to keep him from getting himself killed.

"Don't worry, I can handle it," Luke countered. "There's not too many intact structures on this island so our best bet is just to keep walking until we find one. I'm sure we'll come across it eventually. The Dragon's Gate...I wonder what it looks like!" He couldn't help but be excited.

As the three visitors ventured through the forest a pair of eyes watched them from a nearby tree. "So those are humans?" she whispered to herself. "Why are they here now?" Curious the figure carefully followed after them.

Quana couldn't help the feeling that there was something in the trees around them. Of course it was probably just a bird or something, but she'd have to keep her senses sharp. She didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt. "Alright, so how do you figure you'll know which one of these old ruins is the Dragon's Gate?" she asked her childhood friend.

"Well I imagine there's some connection to dragons, like statues or markings or something along those lines. On top of that the Dragon's Gate should have a strong connection with magic. If we can establish where the area with the highest concentration of raw magic is, then we'll probably have found it," Luke explained. Quana blinked in surprise at that.

"That's...actually rather reasonable. Heh, here I was thinking you were just charging in without a plan again," she admitted.

"Hey, I'm not completely impulsive!" Luke protested. The archer girl simply rolled her eyes. "Besides, we should be reaching the halfway point soon. There's another site here that was where a battle took place. We'll be passing through it on the way to the Dragon's Gate."

"Another battle? I wonder just how many fights happened on this isle," Patrick mused to himself. It seemed that there were a lot of historical battles that happened here, at least in regards to Eliwood and his band of fighters.

"This is where the Black Fang tried to send a sage after Eliwood and his group, but a magic seal made things difficult for him," Luke explained. "But that being isn't around anymore, so it's a moot point to worry about it."

"Maybe we shouldn't worry about that, but I think we're being watched," Quana said as she drew her bow. "Whoever you are, show yourself!" With that, she whipped around and fired an arrow towards the trees.

There was a cry of distress and a pink and blue blur flew up out of the tree as the arrow flew past it. The creature came in to land a short distance away from the three friends. As it straightened up, Luke, Quana and Patrick saw what was likely the strangest creature on Elibe.

It was a humanoid creature that was about five feet and four inches tall with blue eyes, a short snout in the middle of her face, what looked like horse's ears on the top of her head and pink fur that they could only assume covered her entire body. The horse-like creature was wearing loose blue mage robes that covered everything except her hands and the bottom of her legs; they could see that she had hooves instead of feet. Her hands had thick black nails on the tips and clutched in them was what Luke recognized as a tome of thunder magic. However, the most striking feature of the creature was a pair of pink feathered wings that sprouted out of her back, each of which nearly the size of her body.

"W-What the hell?! Some kind of...horse girl with wings?" Patrick stuttered, completely baffled. He had never seen nor heard of such a creature and, judging from her appearance, she was definitely sentient especially since she held a magic tome in her hands.

"Who and what are you?" Luke asked, caution clear in his voice. While on the one hand he was wary of her because she appeared to be stalking them, he couldn't help but be fascinated by this foreign creature. No one had ever seen them before, not according to recorded history.

[This isn't good. What should I do?] the creature spoke in a voice that marked it as female but in a language they couldn't understand.

"I can't understand anything she's saying," Quana remarked with a small frown. How were they supposed to communicate with a creature that couldn't speak their language?

The pegasus girl regarded them for a moment and looked like she was about to speak when she suddenly whipped her head around. [What's that?!] She was suddenly tense and alert.

"Geez, she's jumpy," Patrick remarked. Suddenly, without so much as a warning, a magic light flashed brightly, catching everyone off guard. When the light faded, several people were standing around them, all armed to the teeth.

"What the hell!?" Quana immediately had her bow drawn, aimed at the throat of one of the new assailants.

"Intruders...must be killed..." one of them muttered in a dull, lifeless tone.

Luke gritted his teeth in frustration. "This is really freaky," he muttered.

The pegasus girl held up her thunder tome, [Power of storms, strike them down!] Luke recognized the incantation as a bolt of lightning flew out and struck one of the sword wielding creatures in the chest, immediately followed by a second strike the reduced the creature to dust.

"That's thunder magic. So she's a mage," Luke commented. At least it seemed she was an ally in this fight. "Alright everyone, let's focus on taking...whatever these things are out now!" It was a bit unnerving to be fighting what seemed like zombies...but they could handle it.

"Right!" Quana didn't need to be told twice. She immediately fired an arrow at a nearby lancer, nailing it in the chest. Patrick had his lance out and merely focused on defending the archer girl, who had no means of close combat.

"Red rage, flash!" Luke called, sending out a fireball from his hand and incinerating the lancer Quana had hit earlier.

[Too many of them!] The pegasus girl was forced to take flight as a lancer charged at her and she sent a retaliatory bolt of lightning back at it.

Quana was forced to dodge a myrmidon's sword, letting out a shriek of surprise as she barely avoided the blade. Patrick was quick to defend her, stabbing through the creature with his lance. The archer girl swiftly added her own attack in, piercing the head with a single arrow. "Tch, there's an awful lot of them," she muttered.

"Just don't give up yet," the young knight replied. At least he would be able to repel most of the attacks that came their way. Fortunately it didn't look like any of their enemies were mages, so that helped a lot.

The pink pegasus girl landed next to Luke and added her lightning to one of his fire bolts, frying one of the creatures that was wearing heavy armor.

Luke couldn't help but grin at the combination attack. "Now -that- was pretty cool," he remarked. "We'll have to do that again sometime."

The pegasus seemed to blush but turned around and fired off lightning at a charging myrmidon, which sadly missed.

The tactician was quick to follow up with a fireball to attack the swordsman. When the flames hit, Patrick took charge and impaled the creature on his lance. Quana feathered another fighter, taking a deep breath. "For the love of Elimine, just how many are there!?" she cursed.

"Looks like about ten more," Patrick said.

A nearby lancer threw a javelin at the pegasus girl, which struck her in the side. She winced but pulled the weapon out of her side and fired off a lightning bolt in retaliation.

Quana followed up with an arrow of her own, taking out the lancer for good. However, she failed to notice a swordsman getting close to her until a sharp pain rose through her side. Letting out a cry of pain, she took a few steps back away from the enemy who had stabbed her. The human-like creature was about to finish the job, but Luke quickly parried with his own sword before stabbing the creature in the chest, reducing it to ashes.

[Almost finished,] the pegasus said. She flew up to get a better view of her next target. As she cast her next spell a glyph appeared in front of her which her next bolt of lightning traveled through, vaporising one of the creatures in one strike.

"We should be thankful they've only been frontline fighters. If they had archers or mages, it'd be a lot more difficult than it needed to be." Luke remarked as he incinerated another creature with a fire spell.

"But just what -are- they?" Patrick wondered. He had never seen anything like them before and they turned to dust when they were killed. He was no scientist but even he knew that wasn't natural.

Finally the battle ended. The Pegasus girl pulled out an herb and applied it to her injury as she landed near the three friends.

Quana was already mending her own wound with some vulnerary, applying the salve to her side. It burned a bit and she hissed in discomfort, but it was to be expected. "Phew! Is everyone alright?" she asked, looking to the others.

"Yes, I believe so but goodness, I wasn't expecting anything like that!" Luke admitted.

"Thank you for helping me to destroy those things," the pegasus girl said with a smile.

"So you -can- speak our language." Luke remarked with a small chuckle. "Well perhaps we should be thanking you in that regard. Whatever they were, they wanted all four of us dead for some reason."

"Though now that they're gone, that begs the question; just who and what are you?" Quana asked, glancing to the strange girl with a curious gaze.

"Well..." The girl hesitated. "My name is Yuko Terada and I'm a... Zunanma."

"A what? I can't say I've ever heard of that before..." Patrick admitted. He wasn't even sure if she looked human or not. Her facial features were strange almost as if her face had a snout or something.

"We're not from this world," Yuko replied. She clutched her thunder tome close to her flat chest and pulled her wings in close to her body. "Why did you come to Valor?" she asked.

"We came here looking for the Dragon's Gate. A great battle was said to happen there over a hundred years ago and I was hopeful I could perhaps learn from history by visiting the battlefield," Luke explained. "We weren't expecting the undead to attack us."

"They weren't undead, they were morphs," Yuko replied.

"-Those- were morphs? Like the creatures from the stories?" the tactician mused. They were easier to dispatch than he thought they'd be, but just what were they doing here? "I had thought that there were none of them left."

"They're remains have rested here since those battles you spoke of. Something must have resurrected them. Their remains aren't as powerful as they were when they were first created." Yuko searched around, "I can still feel an aura of darkness around here. You should back to my home for now," she offered.

"Your home? So you live here on Valor? I didn't think anyone did," Quana admitted.

"All the same, we appreciate your offer. Thank you," Luke replied with a smile.

Yuko blushed slightly, "Oh well, you're welcome. Follow me." Yuko flapped her wings and flew up to get her bearings before she landed and motioned for the other three to follow her.


	6. Chapter 5: Zunanma

With the battle against the morphs fresh in their memory, Luke, Quana and Patrick follow the pegasus girl Yuko back to her home. They cannot be prepared for what they are about to see...

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Chapter 5: Zunanma

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Morphs...to think that they had actually fought against morphs like in the old stories. Luke still wasn't sure if he could completely believe it, but there was no doubt that those creatures were the very same. On top of that suddenly they met this strange girl who wasn't even human—a zunanma she called herself? He had never heard of anything like that in any stories he read. And now they were following her back to her village. He wondered if this was really a good idea or not. It could easily be a trap.

"So where is this home of yours, Yuko?" he heard Quana ask the mage, curiosity clear in her tone. At least it seemed she wasn't as concerned as Luke was or if she was, she was good at hiding it.

"Hidden in the dense forests and Thickets of Valor," Yuko replied. She stopped walking and turned to the others, "Under normal circumstances I would have had to leave you after you spotted me, or just fled without explanation and hope you left." She cast her gaze downwards, "I might be in serious trouble for even alerting you to our presence."

"So your people prefer to keep to themselves out of fear of being persecuted?" Luke guessed. "Well you don't have to worry about that from the three of us. Sure, we've never seen anything like you before but that doesn't mean we're going to judge right off the bat." he said.

"There's only three of us; there's not much we can do against an entire group of people to begin with, so we're really not a threat to you," Patrick interjected. "I'm sure your people will understand that much, at least. And if they're worried we'll tell...well, to be frank, no one would really believe us."

Yuko managed a smile. "Thanks." She then turned around and began to lead them on the way once agian.

"So what are Zunanma anyway?" Quana asked.

"I... can't really say yet. I need to hear what everyone says about what's going on when we get there. Not much farther now," Yuko replied.

"This is definitely a ways off of any trail. You'd have to be hopelessly lost to wander out this farm," Or have to know what you're looking for, Luke noted to himself.

"Well here we are!" Yuko announced as she brushed aside some large foliage blocking their way. The trio were surprised when they feasted their eyes on a village as plain as day right in front of them. It was a quaint, quiet village, with the buildings constructed out of wood and leaves to help them blend in. They could spy several animal-like beings roaming about, presumably going about their days. More zunanma, Luke surmised.

"Wow..." he uttered in slight awe.

"Those buildings are so big!" Quana remarked. "Especially compared to our dinky little houses back home."

Their voices attracted the attention of several of the zunanma. Most of them just stared at the humans entereing their midst and soem cast angry glares at Yuko, who shrank back and tried to hide behind her wings.

Before any serious protests could be lodged a red bird zunanma with a huge beak in the middle of his face and wearing brown mage's robes approached the group. He easily pushed Yuko's wings aside and spoke, [Yuko, what have you done? Why are these Beorc here? Were you watching them and got spotted?] He cast and agry glare and them and revealed an old magic tome from the folds of his robe, [Are you their captive?]

[No!] Yuko's voice carried a strong protest to it, [We were attacked by morphs.] Yuko produced a handful of the dust she had gathered from the battlefield and showed it to the bird Zunanma, who took it to examine.

[This does look like morph dust.] He cast his gaze back at the other zunanma, [I'll have to speak to the elders later but for now you should bring these beorc back to our home, it will help prevent any incidents.]

Yuko sighed in relief and turned back to the other beorc, who were just watching, trying and failing to follow the conversation. "This is my father, Koran Terada. Just follow us back to our house and we can talk more there."

"Are you sure that's alright? They don't seem too pleased to see us," Luke commented, noticing all the angry stares being sent their way. It was a bit unsettling in a way, actually.

"Mom and dad will get everyone calmed down. The appearance of the morphs will likely redirect their attention," Yuko assured them as her father led them to a relatively large building in the village. The entrance looked like a storefront for magic objects, tomes and staves were stacked on the walls with alchemy sets on the store counter and doors leading farther into the house.

"This is not a good situation," Koran spoke in the common tongue. "Your presence here is serious but the appearance of morphs is even more so. Please wait here while we speak with my wife. Yuko please come with me." He motioned for his daughter to follow him.

"It'll be fine," Yuko tried to assure them before they vanished through the doors behind the counter.

Once the trio of humans was left alone, they turned to each other to carry out their own conversation. "There were a lot of things I was expecting when we came to Valor, but I didn't see any of this coming," Luke admitted, surprise still evident in his tone. Part of him still didn't really believe that all of this was happening to them.

"No one back home would ever believe us about any of this even if we told them," Patrick restated from earlier. "That's probably a good thing, though. I don't think these people would want too many outsiders visiting their village." He didn't blame them for that; some people would cause nothing but chaos and pain; slavers especially would love to come here. The sick dastards that they are.

"You have to admit though, this place is really beautiful. I'm envious!" Quana remarked. "These people must be really close with nature if they've managed to live like this for who knows how long." She wondered just what they had named this settlement.

Yuko emerged into the living area behind the storefront and was immediaely appraoched by a white horse zunanma in white cleric's robes who hugged her. Unlike Yuko her face looked much more like a real horse's face, her muzzle taking up a much larger portion of her face and her eyes close the sides of her face.

[Yuko, are you alright?!] She asked.

[I'm fine mom,] Yuko assured her, hugging the horse zunanma back.

Koran smiled and hugged his wife and daughter briefly before separating. [Seisu, I know you're happy to see Yuko but right now we have more pressing matters to see to.] He held up the handful of morph dust he had retrieved from Yuko.

[Morps dust?] Seisu took a pinch of the substance form her husband.

[Yes! Some beorc and I were attacked by morphs and... I brought them back here once we destroyed them,] Yuko admitted, her hooves shuffling on the floor.

[Normally I would reprimand you for this, young lady, but in light of the appearance of the morphs we may need their help if we wish to avoid exposure,] Seisu replied. [I supposed we should invite them into our home.]

"You think Yuko's getting into trouble for taking us here?" Quana wondered. If that was the case, she really did feel bad for taking her up on her offer. If it caused so much trouble, then why did she offer it so readily?

"It's possible; the people here probably don't want to be exposed to outsiders so Yuko bringing us here might have broken some kind of law they have or something," Luke stated thoughtfully. Though he didn't think she'd be so impulsive, especially without a good reason.

Their conversation was interrupted by the return of Yuko and her parents. Upon seeing that Yuko's mother was a horse zunanma a light went off in Patrick's head, "Oh, that explains it!"

Luke seemed to come to a similar conclusion as he chuckled. "Yes, now I can see why Yuko is a pegasus as well," he commented. Her mother was a horse and her father a bird. It was definitely interesting, to say the least. Quana elbowed the both of them, rolling her eyes.

"At least try to be respectful, you two," she remarked. Honestly, boys. Sometimes they were just too easily fascinated.

Yuko and her mother giggled. "Yes that's why I'm a pegasus, and the only one in fact," Yuko said.

"It's because of the dark magic lingering on Valor that she was able to be conceived, and why her snout is so small." Seisu playfully prodded her daughter's snout

"Mom!" Yuko flinched away but smiled. "This is my mom, Seisu."

"I'll leave you to get acquainted. I need to go see the elders. Please don't leave the house until I return," Koran said as he headed for the door.

"As long as we're here, come into the family room," Seisu offered.

"Thank you for your hospitality," Luke answered with a smile. He and his friends entered the home, led by the two women. "We're sorry for all of this trouble, though. We honestly didn't have any idea that people actually lived on Valor," he admitted.

"That's why our kind settled here," Seisu replied. "I can get you some food and water if you like," she offered.

"That would be appreciated, thank you," the tactician replied.

The family room could be described as quaint. There were two sofas adjacent to each other with a small end table in between them, no doubt for the sake of entertaining guests. There were some plants in the room, mostly for decoration's sake to give the place a more natural feel.

Seisu smiled and disappeared into what they could assume was the kitchen as they call took their seats.

"So... while we wait is there anything you want me to talk about?" Yuko asked.

"I have a few questions I wouldn't mind having answered. Like for example, how do you and your people seem to know so much about the morphs and just the outside world in general? I assume your people haven't left Valor in ages so your knowledge of world history is honestly a bit surprising," Luke admitted.

"Well to be honest most of our knowledge of your world comes from a visitor who came to our island about 120 years ago, right after the battle between the Lycians and the morphs," Yuko replied.

"So we're not the first humans to visit this place," Quana mused thoughtfully. "Though I wonder who it could have been. If they came here so soon after that battle was over, then maybe it was one of the Lycian warriors who was fighting against the morphs."

"If that's the case, that would be amazing," Luke admitted.

"He wasn't Lycian, in fact he never spoke about his past," Seisu said as she returned with a pitcher of water and some bread and butter. "I'm not sure what you want so this is all I could think of," she admitted. "As for the visitor, he was named Renault. The only thing he ever said about himself is that he joined the Lycians to get rid of the morphs so he could have some peace on Valor but he was only a part of their army for their final battle. He stumbled across our city and he decided to live out his days here. Though he never spoke of his past he told us much about Elibe while he lived here."

"Renault?! History remembers him as a very ambiguious man. No one knows where he went after the battle. It seems now we know," Luke remarked, surprise clear in his voice. "It's said that he was somehow connected to Nergal and wanted revenge but there's really not too much of anything to go off of. His past is a complete mystery to history's pages."

"And even to ours." Seisu nodded.

Yuko nodded, "As for our people, we came from a world called Tellius 800 years ago. The Zunanma were the first people who evolved on that world and we worshipped the goddess Ashunera. However the Zunanma began to fracture into tribes who adopted different philosophies for life: The Beorc, children of knowledge who look like you; and the Laguz, children of strength who took on animalistic features in their human form and can become full animals to unleash all their ferocity."

Seisu took over, "Some of our ancestors rejected the notion of needing to choose one philosophy over the other and fled as the fighting between Beorc and Laguz escalated. We ventured through a portal called the 'outrealm gate' and found ourselves in this world while your nations were still young. We chose to settle on Valor because it lacked any developed civilization so we could live in secrecy and peace."

"That's absolutely fascinating," Luke admitted in slight awe, an expression of contemplation on his face. From a scientific standpoint, such a notion was outlandish and farfetched, but then again the world worked in ways they couldn't hope to fully comprehend. What reason had he not to believe them?

"Ashunera, the goddess of dawn. She's not a goddess commonly worshipped here in Elibe, but she does have her followers. Most people here belong to the Elimine church instead," Quana commented. "Saint Elimine was one of the heroes of the Scouring. It's said that she ascended into the heavens after dying as a martyr and the church was named after her honor."

"As far as we know, Ashunera does not exist on this world," Seisu said. "But word of her did spread from us as we traveled the land. There may be mention of humanoid animals in your myths that reference our first arrivals in this world."

"I'll have to look into that later," Luke admitted. He wondered if any of his history books held any information on such a thing. "Though our primary purpose in coming here was to head to the Dragon's Gate; I wanted to visit the place where that battle occurred to see if I could glean anything useful from the tactics used by the Lycian strategist. The man was a genius of war, no doubt."

"Renault spoke of him briefly. Though he didn't say what he thought of the tactics that were used," Seisu noted.

"Our history speaks highly of him. Not a single one of the Lycian band was lost in battle under his guidance. It's said countries were even willing to go to war to have him become their own strategist," Luke explained. "That's the sort of greatness that I aspire to."

"That's a high aspiration," Yuko said.

"It is, but I'm willing to work for it," Luke replied with a grin.

"It's good to see such ambition in a young man," Seisu noted. She gafve a slight wink to Yuko that went unnoticed by the others.

The conversation was interrupted when the front door of the house opened and Koran's voice came to them, "I'm back."

"Did everything go well? We'd hate to have caused an uproar..." Quana spoke up. They didn't mean to disturb the peace of this village, but with all that was going on, they would probably need all the help they could get.

Koran sighed, "You're fortunate that the appearance of the morphs have outweighed your discovery of this place." Seeing the shocked look on Patrick's face Koran added, "You wouldn't be in any danger it's just that the elders wouldn't have any idea how to handle this. As it stands the morphs present a threat to us because their master's intentions are most likely more sinister than yours."

"We honestly had no intentions of coming here at all. We only found this place because your daughter was kind enough to offer asylum after we fought off the morphs," Luke explained.

"I couldn't just leave them out there to be ambushed again!" Yuko spoke up.

"I wouldn't expect any less of you," Koran told his daughter as he ruffled her hair. "For now the elders need to decide what to do about this stuation. For the moment they are going to wait and see if the morphs will appear again. Until then you may spend the night with us," Koran offered.

"Thank you, sir," the tactician replied with a grateful smile.

"You're welcome, but I should say that I am doing this less out of altruism and more to avoid causing panic in town. But don't misunderstand me. I hold no ill will towards you as I do not know you but..." He smiled at Yuko, "My daughter likes you and that's enough for me."

"You may sleep in here. Do you have bedrolls?" Seisu asked

"Yes, ma'am, we'll situate ourselves." Patrick spoke up. "Don't you worry about us!" He didn't want to cause any more trouble for these people than they already had.

"You should be fine. I will have to make more for supper tonight though," Koran commented.

As the two older Zunanma left, Yuko stayed seated on the couch. She watched the three friends setting up their sleeping area, after Patrick removed his heavy armor. After a moment she asked, "What is the rest of Elibe like?"

"The rest of Elibe? Well…it's all pretty different," Luke replied. "It'd take a bit of time to describe it all to you. There's Lycia, Bern, Sacae, Ilia, Eturia. All of the countries are pretty different from each other, too, so it'd be difficult to talk about it all in one sitting."

"Where do the three of you come from?" Yuko asked.

"We all come from Lycia. Luke and I came from Pherae but Patrick came from Ostia." Quana decided to answer for her this time, deciding to get a bit more involved in the conversation.

"What is lycia like? What are the people like?" Yuko sat forwards, her interest piqued.

"It's a pretty nice place. The people tend to be kind." Quana said with a smile. "Lycia used to be a bunch of different territories that was ruled by a council of marquesses, but after Lord Roy and Lady Lilina of the Bern War married, they united it into a single kingdom. The current king is their grandson."

"We never heard about the war. Some of our people sensed conflict but we stayed out of everything, as always," Yuko replied. "Have you travelled much?"

"I wouldn't say we're the most well-traveled people around, but we've been around most of Lycia," Patrick spoke up. "Though we haven't really been outside of Lycia before, so honestly, this is our first trip to a foreign land."

"OK." Yuko stood up, "Well I should go help dad with supper, I hope you don't mind staying here."

"We'll be fine." Luke said with a reassuring smile. "We know how to take care of ourselves, don't worry." Sometimes he wondered if these people were so used to coddling themselves that they ended up coddling visitors, too.

The next day, Yuko found herself perched on the top of a tree above her village. She stared, out at the distant shoe, able to see it thanks to the vision inherited from her father. "I want to go with them," she said aloud as she leaned back against the tip of the trunk. Her gaze lowered to observe he layout of valor.

Yuko blinked and squinted. There were figures near the ruins of the dragon's gate. She spread her wings and flew to a tree closer to the ege of the forest, lowering herself below the tree line to avoid being spotted. Once at the edge of the forest she carefully peered out. She could just make out about two dozen shapes, all of them with pale skin and jet black hair. "Morphs!" she whispered in alarm before she turned around and sped through the air back to her home.

Meanwhile, Luke, Quana and Patrick had just finished getting ready for the day. They had a restful night's sleep thanks to the hospitality of the zunanma, but they did plan on setting out towards the Dragon's Gate before noon.

"It's almost a shame we have to leave so soon," Quana commented. "It's such a nice little village, I'd like to see more of it. Oh well." They did come here with an original purpose in mind and they didn't want to overstay their welcome. Especially if people were still uncomfortable with them around.

"We would appreciate you going to Dragon's Gate, if only to see if there are any more morphs in the area," Koran said from where he sat on the couch, a book in his talon-like hands. "They may not be especially powerful but we do not want whoever is controlling them to find out about our home."

"We'll keep an eye out for any more Morphs that might be running about. It's disturbing to think someone is using them again after so long," Luke admitted with a frown. Who was using them, though, and why?

Further conversation was forestalled when Yuko burst in. "Morphs! By the dragon's gate!" she panted, her wings drooping from her rapid flight back.

Luke blinked in surprise at this announcement before he frowned deeply. "Well I guess that answers that question," he muttered. "Looks like we've got another fight on our hands..."

"And now they're at the Dragon's Gate? I wonder just what they're doing there," Patrick remarked.

"Regardless they st be dealt with," Koran said before he turned to his daughter, "I assume you want to go with them."

Yuko nodded, "They've seen me already, and I want to stop them."

"Very well." Koran turned back to the three visitors, "Yuko will accompany you to the dragon's gate. Please don't let her get hurt."

"We'll protect her," Luke said with a grin. "And we'll clean up those Morphs, too, so don't worry about them. Before the day is through, they'll all return to the dust they came from."

"Thank you," Koran said.

"We should go. Dad, can I take an elthunder tome?" Yuko asked.

"Considering the danger to our home, I'll let you have one without charge this time." Koran nodded.

"Thanks dad," Yuko gave her dad a hug then darted into the store entrance to fish out the tome.

"Our equipment should be good enough to handle the Morphs for now, I'm sure it'll hold," Luke commented, going over some things in his head. Yes, most weaponry would get brittle with age and eventually break if used too often, but their weapons were still in good shape. They didn't need to worry about that quite yet.

"That's good," Koran said.

"OK I'm ready, I'll lead," Yuko called from the entrance.

"Alright then, let's go!" Luke said with a nod. He had no problem with letting Yuko take the lead for now, but he'd take command when the battle actually started. He knew quite a bit about tactics, so he wanted to make sure their four-man squad would be able to handle such a large group.

As they emerged from the forest, the four of them spotted the scattered morphs on the field in front of them. "Here we are, I don't know what kind of forces there are."

"Alright, we should all stay near each other for this fight." Luke said, looking to his companions. "There's only four of us, so we can't afford to go off on our own here. Patrick, I need you to stay up out front. You'll be our heavy hitter and our primary defense. It seems most of the enemies are melee fighters, so you should be alright. Quana, you're going to stay towards the back and attack from afar. Leave repelling incoming attacks to us - you should focus on feathering them. Yuko, you and I will serve as the auxiliary fighters. You're a bit more capable of handling yourself in close range than Quana is, and with your wings you'll be able to evade attacks a bit easier. We'll finish off anyone that Patrick wounds enough and protect Quana at the same time." he explained out the formation and strategy for the coming battle. "Since we don't want any of these Morphs to know about the village, our mission is to rout every single one of them. Don't let a single one get away alive."

"Good strategy. Let me know if you spot any archers or wind mages," Yuko added.

"I'll do my best to snipe them down if I see them!" Quana said, preparing her bow and notching an arrow. "Now let's take these freaks of nature out!"

One of the morphs, armed with a lance, noticed them and gave a hollow cry as it charged at the group. "I guess they saw us!" Patrick commented as he stepped to take the blow, the morph's lance just striking off his armor.

Luke was quick to step in, sending out a blast of fire to damage the lancer. Quana finished the creature off with an arrow to the throat, but this only served to alert the rest of the morphs to the presence of intruders.

Yuko managed to fry one that came too close with her elthunder tome. "We might need to move forwards to get rid of all of them," she called out.

The tactician nodded in agreement. "I think you're right, but remember the plan to stick together!" he ordered. Patrick nodded himself and proceeded forward towards the entrance of the Dragon's Gate. Two swordsmen attempted to intercept him, but he managed to bash them both away with powerful lance stabs. Yuko and Quana were quick to finish them off.

"About 20 more left," Yuko commented. She launched a lightning bolt at a nearby morph, but missed.

"We're lucky they don't seem to be too powerful individually, otherwise we really would be in a lot more trouble," Quana commented to herself as she feathered the morph Yuko had previously missed.

An arrow flew in to their ranks and Struck yuko in the arm, coming out the other sde, she cried out in pain and tried to pull it out, only to flinch in pain

"It's barbed, don't try to pull it back," Luke said.

"Then what do I do?" Yuko asked.

"Here," Luke took his sword and cu the shaft from the arrow, "Do you have anything to heal that?"

Yuko nodded, "An herb."

"OK, then just bear this," he grabbed the front of the arrow and carefully pulled the broken end through.

"Thank you," Yuko said as she applied the herb the wound.

With Yuko's wound healed, Luke returned his attention to the battle at hand. Quana had slayed the archer that hit Yuko, and now was making sure to snipe off anyone that Patrick hit in order to finish them off. The knight, for his part, played the role of a tank well enough. He took a few scratches and minor hits here and there, but it was nothing that caused any outrageous concerns. Yuko didn't waste any time in charging up her magic for the next strike, vaporising a lancer morph that was charging at them.

"Phew...how many more left are there?" Patrick wondered, beginning to grow a bit fatigued from his efforts. He didn't have a problem with throwing his weight around, but there were so many enemies.

"As long as there's more than one!" Yuko took a hit from a myrmidon and retaliated with a bolt from her elthunder tome. Luke stepped in and cut the myrmidon down with his sword.

Patrick decided he would just take a very long nap once this was over before he impaled a morph on the end of his lance with extreme prejudice. As the body dissolved into dust, he was forced to defend himself when a blast of fire came his way from a morph mage. "Tch."

Yuko spotted the mage and lashed out with her thunder tome, easily striking the creature in the side. One of Quana's arrows finished it off.

"I think we're almost done," Luke said, glancing carefully around the battlefield. "But they should have some kind of commander..." He found it odd they didn't see one that looked like they were calling the shots.

Near the entrance to Dragon's gate two figures stood, both clad in the robes and armor of a war monk, one in orange the other in pale green, with an axe and healing staff attached to each of their backs and tiger stripes the same color as their robes on the sides their faces.

"Ahh Manfed, are these the remains we were looking for?" the one in green asked as he knelt over a small pile of ancient dust in the entrance of the ruins.

"According to what we were told, they are, James," the war monk in orange, named Manfred, replied to his partner and brother. "Let's gather them up and move on. There's still other materials to collect for Blanche."

"Yes, lets. Hmm?" James looked up, "We appear to have company Manfred."

"Hm?" Manfred glanced outside himself and frowned a bit. "So it seems, James. How interesting."

"But we can't stick around. Here," he snapped his fingers and a hooded sniper appeared.

"This is a message from Lord Nergal. 'I await you on the Dread Isle'. This is a message from Lord Nergal. 'I await you on the Dread Isle'. This is a message from lord Nergal..." The being repeated endlessly.

"Yes, this was one of the original morphs that Blanche managed to resurrect...sadly, it completely lacks anything in terms of intelligence, free will or even a conscious. It can fight, but it's really nothing more than a glorified tape recorder," Manfred commented. "And it's not even as strong as it was way back in the day. Oh well. It doesn't matter so long as it can kill those intruders. We have other things we need to do."

"Yes we do." James nodded as he finished scooping the dust they had found into his bag. "Let's depart."

"Yes, let's," Manfred agreed, taking a staff from his back. It glowed brightly and with a flash of light, both men disappeared, leaving the soulless morph sniper to finish the job.

"What was that?" Yuko saw the bright flash near the dragon's gate but her momentary distraction allowed a lancer to get past Patrick and slash her across the chest. Yuko retaliated with two bolts of lightning and blew it apart.

"I have no idea, but I think there's someone there." Luke remarked with a small frown. An answer to his question came when an arrow flew past his head, missing him - albeit barely. "Woah! Yeah, I think it's probably an enemy!"

"That was a bolt from a ballista, there must be one set up nearby," Quana observed. Yuko shuddered at the thought.

"We definitely don't want to be hit with one of those," Patrick mused. Even with his heavy armor, a ballista bolt would hurt quite a bit. "We better get to it and take out that archer and quick!"

"Agreed." It was times like this Luke wished he had a Meteor tome. It would be so much easier to attack someone from that distance.

"I can't fly until he's done shooting," Yuko said. "And... I think I need to pull back out of his range."

"Just stick by me, I'll keep you safe," the tactician said with grin in her direction. It was true that the ballista really threw off his strategy, but they could make up for it by just staying close together instead.

"Oh, OK," Yuko blushed slightly but moved to stand by Luke.

As they moved forwards another bolt flew right at Luke and Yuko. On a reflex, Yuko tackled Luke to the ground, causing the bolt to fly over them and bury itself in the ground.

The young man was quick to recover, but he couldn't help but marvel at the irony. "I thought I was supposed to protect you," he commented with an amused chuckle.

"Well I can't just let you be a big shield," Yuko replied as she got up to continue the fight.

"Yeah, that's Patrick's job." Quana remarked jokingly as she feathered one more morph from a distance. The aforementioned knight only rolled his eyes, used to her darker sense of humor.

"We're getting closer to that sniper...Let's hope we can take him out quickly enough," Patrick commented.

"If we can't we should get in close and surround it so it can't attack," Luke called out as he and Yuko blasted a morph with fire and lightning.

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Quana remarked. Getting up close and personal would make it hard for the morph to attack them.

"We should be almost done," Yuko added as they sped to cross a bridge that separated them from the ballista.

"Do you think we could try and break the ballista?" Patrick asked, looking to Luke for confirmation.

"We could try, but it'd be easier just to kill the morph," Luke replied. "Let's get ready; I can see the guy from here."

As they approached the morph it stepped away from the ballista and approached Patrick. Once it was close enough they heard it's non-stop babbling. " This is a message from Lord Nergal. 'I await you on the Dread Isle'. This is a message from Lord Nergal. 'I await you on the Dread Isle'. This is a message..." As it notched an arrow and let it fly at Patrick.

Patrick couldn't dodge the arrow in time and it hit him, actually managing to make him shout in pain as it drilled into his side. Quana was quick to return fire, launching an arrow back at the morph man.

"Just what's that thing talking about?" Luke wondered with a frown. There had to be some kind of reasoning behind the man's repeating that single message over and over. Is that what it meant to be a Morph? Nothing more than a soulless tool?

"Let's do what you suggested and get in close," Yuko said as she pulled away from Luke's side and flew right in to the morph's face and shoved her hand, charged with elthunder, close to its body, which blew a hole through its body, but the morph was still standing.

Luke took his sword and darted forward before he jumped up and viciously cleaved downwards, leaving a long gash on the morph's body. However, it still managed to stay standing, almost as if it couldn't register the pain its body was in. "Damn...just what kind of inhuman abomination is this?" the tactician had to wonder.

"I thought we already knew that," Yuko countered. Quana and Patrick, despite the pain from the arrow shot, managed to get in close and surround the morph.

Seemingly confused, the morph sniper notched an arrow to its steel bow and pointed it at Yuko, or rather over her shoulder. It turned to face Luke only to be met with the same dilemma, then Patrick and finally Quana. It kept turning to face each of them but never could level an arrow at them due to the way it had to hold its bow, all the while repeating its phrase in the same cold monotone voice. "This is a message from Lord Nergal. 'I await you on the Dread Isle'…"

"Let's finish this..." Patrick remarked. Without waiting for an invitation, he charged forward, stabbing his lance towards the morph, aiming to end its existence.

The morph still did not die, forcing Yuko and Luke to blast it with fire and lightning. Patrick stabbed at it again and finally the morphs crumble dto dust with one last line. "This is a... message... fro..."

"Phew...that was too close..." Quana admitted with a sigh. "I think that's the last of them."

"Out here. There might be more inside," Yuko stated as she turned to see the worn entrance of the Dragon's Gate carved into the mountainside.

"That is a decent possibility." Luke agreed. "So we better be prepared once we head inside. Though just what are the morphs doing here? We never got an answer to that question." It was worrisome, to say the least. Who had sent these creatures here and for what purpose? It was a mystery.

"We might find out once we head in," Patrick pointed out.


	7. Chapter 6: Dragon Ruins

With the morphs guarding the ruins dead, Luke and Yuko head into the Dragon's Gate with Patrick and Quana. They hope to find answers inside…

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Chapter 6: Dragon Ruins

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After dealing with the morphs outside of the Dragon's Gate, Luke and his party continued onwards into the structure itself. While the stone was slightly faded due to age, the temple still held a mystical air about it. However, there were some areas that seemed damaged. Some cracks were visible on the floors and walls from attacks that had been fired in the past.

"There's definitely some strong magic energy in this place..." Yuko mused softly, more so to herself than out loud. Was this the power of the dragons? It was baffling.

"I think some of these marks were left over from that battle against Nergal," Luke commented, examining the cracks. "That must have been quite the epic battle. I wish I could have seen it."

"Don't look now, but I think we're not the only ones here," Quana spoke up, her bow already at the ready. "I think there's more morphs in here. I can hear footsteps."

"I just hope this is the last of them," Yuko said as she readied herself. As she spoke six of the creatures emerged from the still intact rooms that lined the wide hall they found themselves in.

"Two axes, lances and swords," Luke noted. "There might be more hiding in the rooms."

"At least they should be easier to deal with, right?" Patrick asked. "We just need to pick them off one by one and that should be the end of it," At least he hoped it would be that simple.

"We'll have to, this place has stood for centuries, we don't have the power to simply collapse the structure," Yuko noted. An axe user charged and she fired off two blasts of elthunder at the creature, which disintegrated it.

"No more time to talk," Quana added as she fired off an arrow at a charging ranger swordsman.

As the ranger was hit by the arrow, Patrick dashed forward and impaled the morph viciously with his spear. The creature burst into black dust, signifying its death. Luke wasted no time in launching his own attack, sending out a fireball at one of the lancers. Yuko shot a bolt of normal thunder at the lancer and finished it off.

"Three down, three to go," Quana remarked. The remaining morphs weren't going to just stand there and let themselves get killed, however. The myrmidon darted towards her, slashing its blade. The archer girl was forced to jump back to evade the attack.

Yuko was caught by another axe fighter. She shouted in pain as the axe cut into her side and she struck back with elthunder. Luke was quick to strike as well, plunging his sword into the creature's chest. Patrick also attacked, stabbing his lance at the myrmidon who attacked Quana. It managed to dodge the attack, though. Quana backed up and managed to plant an arrow in the morphs skull, slaying it in an instant.

The last fighter didn't last too much longer, quickly put down by a combination of Luke's sword and Yuko's thunder. "Well that's done," Patrick remarked. "But do you think that's all there were?"

"Probably not, so let's be careful," Luke advised.

"There might be more at the portal," Yuko said. "The sooner we clear them out the better," She added as she took off for the back of the hall.

"She's really impatient, isn't she?" Quana commented, amused.

"Seems like it. But she's right; the sooner we get rid of them, the better. Let's catch up!" Luke remarked.

Yuko slowed to a stop once she reached the bridge in front of the now sealed dragon's gate and peered across, "It looks like about a dozen more and... Look out!" she jumped aside as a massive bolt of lightning struck where she had been a second ago. She turned to see four morphs standing on small platforms sticking up out of the void. "Long range magic."

"If only we can find a way to knock them down from those perches..." Luke said, frowning deeply. Having those mages so high up like that would make it very dangerous to try and counterattack, even impossible at the current distance.

"I can handle them," Yuko said.

"But how. Do you have your own long-range magic?" Patrick asked.

"No, I have these." Yuko spread her wings.

"Just be careful," the tactician advised her. "Quana's arrows can't reach that high, so we'll be counting on you to take them out. We'll handle the troops on the ground."

"I will be. You should stay out of their range until I deal with them, unless you can withstand their magic." Yuko flapped her wings and took off out over the void, heading for the magic that had tried to bolt her.

As the foot soldiers approached the remaining trio, the battle broke out anew. A fighter jumped up and slashed its axe at Luke, who managed to jump back out of the way. He retaliated with a slash from his own blade, cutting deep into the morph's body. Quana quickly finished it off before two lancers appeared and attempted to impale Luke on their lances. Patrick defended his friend with his shield which allowed the tactician to incinerate the lancers with his fire magic.

Fortunately for them, Yuko's approach to the platforms diverted the attention of the mages. One massive bolt of lightning struck her but she weathered the blast, a little scorched, as she came in under his range and blew him off the platform with a bolt of elthunder. As the mage fell, Quana acted. Drawing an arrow, she let it fly true, letting it pierce the morph as it plummeted. The only remains were the black dust that scattered away to the wind. Patrick took a blow from a myrmidon but spun his lance and ran him through, the morphs dissolving to dust on his lance. 

"I don't think there's too many left, but keep your guards up." Luke advised his teammates. He couldn't see around the corners, but he was careful about advancing. He didn't want to end up on the wrong side of a blade.

Yuko dodged another bolt of lightning and flew after another of the mages. She got close enough to blast him with elthunder, disintegrating him. She smirked and scooped up the discarded bolting tome from the dust pile. She opened the book and tried to cast the spell, but it fizzled. "Need more practise," she commented before she took off again.

With more of the long range mages being picked off it was safer for Luke and the others to advance. Sure enough, there were still a few morphs remaining, as a knight approached and stabbed a lance towards Luke. The tactician managed to evade, while Patrick immediately engaged the opponent.

"There doesn't appear to be a leader," Quana noted as she shot two arrows at the knight which stuck in its armor.

"Maybe we already killed their leader - that sniper from outside." Luke commented as he cast a fire spell, blasting the knight.

Quana watched the knight crumble to dust, "It's possible," she mused. Another flash of lightning indicated that Yuko had taken down the third long range mage.

"Seems like we're almost done here..." Patrick remarked. "But just what are they doing here?"

"Maybe they were just left behind by those two we saw at the entrance," Luke speculated.

"Maybe..."

"But just what goal did those men have here?" Quana wondered aloud with a frown.

"I wish I knew, but I don't have the foggiest idea," Luke admitted.

Further speculation was stopped when two lancers charged at Luke. One missed hit stabbed but the other managed to strike him through the side. The tactician let out a cry of pain as the lance hit him, wincing a bit. Patrick was quick to leap into action, stabbing towards the lancer who hit his friend.

Yuko flew right at the last of the long range mages. This time the mage was ready for her and it shot a last of fire at her. She retaliated with two bolt of elthunder, striking it down. "Last one," she said aloud before she turned back to the bridge and flew towards her companions.

Quana feathered one of the two lancers in the throat with an arrow. It didn't have much of a chance to recover as Luke finished it off with a sword stroke, reducing it to dust. Patrick took a hit to the side, but he managed to finish off the other lancer as well. "Is that all of them?" he wondered, looking about.

"Two more at the closed portal," Yuko said as she landed amongst them.

"That's all? Then we're almost done," Luke said, relief in his voice. There were so many morphs around and he was surprised they weren't completely outnumbered. Perhaps it was because the morphs themselves weren't very strong at all.

"Then let's finish this," Quana said as she sighted down the bridge.

"Yeah, let's," Luke agreed. Though he hoped the two remaining enemies wouldn't be too tough. Fighting this much was exhausting.

Yuko landed next to Luke, "That's it for the mages, how many are left?" she asked.

"Only two enemies left it looks like..." he replied, indicating forward.

"One of them should be a commander," Quana said as she fired an arrow at an approaching armored morph. The arrow stuck but the armored morph kept coming.

Luke quickly lashed out with a fiery blast from his tome, sending it towards the approaching enemy. His attack did significantly more damage than Quana had, but it still failed to stop his charge.

Yuko sent one more blast of lightning at the knight, finally destroying it. "Alright, that just leaves the boss, whoever it is."

"AAH!" Patrick cried out in pain as a massive bolt of lightning struck him. He staggered back but didn't fall.

"Patrick, are you alright?!" Quana asked him, panic clear on her face. The young knight grunted a bit in pain, but he managed a nod towards her.

"Y-Yeah, I'll be fine…what the hell was that?" he questioned.

Luke was scowling, clearly befuddled. "Could we have missed a sniper?" he wondered aloud. His eyes then narrowed at the remaining enemy. "Or maybe their commander has been a sniper this whole time. He just was down here with the rest of the troops rather than up on the platforms, so we'd overlook him and let our guards down." A smart tactic, he would admit, though it did have a few fatal flaws, like what would happen if the commander had to fight for himself.

Yuko looked back at Patrick and sighed in relief when she saw he was still alive, "I should get closer to him, under his range. I can weather magic attacks." The pegasus zunanama spread her wings and took off down the bridge.

"Tch, I can't get a good shot at him from this distance," Quana remarked. She had thought she could try to snipe the man from a longer range, but the lack of light made her accuracy shaky at best.

"Let's just try and draw closer while Yuko draws his attention. Then we can get close enough to finish him off at close range when he can't protect himself." Luke said. He looked to Patrick in concern. "Are you okay to continue?" he asked. Patrick nodded.

"Yeah, I'm alright," he replied. He just hoped he didn't have to take anymore lightning bolts.

"Thunder! Thunder hear my cry!" The sage morph fired off a black of lightning at Yuko as she approached. Yuko took the blast head on and gritted her teeth against the pain but kept flying. As soon as he was in range she fired off two blasts of elthunder at him but he kept standing.

As the sage was distracted, Luke and the others managed to draw in close enough to try and launch some attacks of their own. Quana quickly fired off an arrow at the sage while Luke sent out a fireball from his tome, both attacks aiming to do some damage. Both struck him and he fell, "No, my strategy..." and he turned to dust as he collapsed to the floor.

Yuko sighed and wiped her forehead, "I think that's the last of them."

"I think so. Phew, that was tough," Luke admitted, panting slightly. The adrenaline had helped to temper the exhaustion, but now that the fight was over, it was obvious the small party was quite tired from their long battle.

"We should go back to the village and let everyone know that the morphs are gone," Quana said.

"Yes, but just what were they after?" Yuko wondered aloud.

"It probably had something to do with those two strange people outside the ruins," Luke speculated.

"That might be, but for now Quana's right, we need to get back home to tell everyone the danger's gone," Yuko agreed.

"Then let's do that...We could use the rest." Patrick said. He could swear that his armor still bore a few scorch marks from the lightning blast earlier. That wasn't very fun.

Luke was admittedly a little disappointed that he couldn't examine the Dragon's Gate a bit more closely, but the health of his friends came first. "Yes, let's head back."

The whole Zunanma town seemed to heave a sigh of relief when the four warriors returned to the city. Yuko's Father, Koran, was there to greet them and he smiled, moving to wrap Yuko in a hug with his arms and wings when he saw her.

[Thank goodness you're safe, may I assume the morphs are destroyed?] he asked her.

[Yes, we killed them all, but two normal Beorc appeared and gathered something before they teleported away,] Yuko said. When Koran released her she turned back to the others, "Want to come back to rest at my place for the night?" she offered.

"If you wouldn't mind having us...We're definitely exhausted." Luke said with a tired smile. They were all going to sleep easily tonight, there was no question about that.

"We don't mind," Koran assured them. "Yuko can go with you. I must inform the elders of these developments."

"Thank you, sir," the tactician replied gratefully. "C'mon guys, let's go sit down and rest."

"Yeah, the sooner I can take this armor off the better." Patrick agreed.

Back at the house, Yuko's mother Seisu helped Patrick remove his armor and fetched a vulnerary to treat their injuries. "How are you feeling?" she asked as she rubbed the vulnerary's ointment into Patrick's electrical burn."

"Sore, but I don't feel numb or anything," the young man replied. He knew that if he -had- been feeling numb, that would probably be a really bad thing.

"That's good." Seisu looked up at her daughter, "are you alright, dear?"

"I'm fine," Yuko assured her but she took a dose from the vulnerary anyway to treat her own injuries.

"Patrick took the worse of it out of all of us but I think we'll all be fine with a little bit of rest." Quana said with a smile. "We're definitely pretty tough after all of that!"

"And you should be. But what will you do now?" Seisu asked the three humans.

"That's something we need to talk about. With the morphs back for some reason, no doubt something is brewing. We might have to head home and start warning people about some impending disaster," Luke remarked thoughtfully.

"If anyone will believe us," Quana added. "Unless they see the morphs themselves they might not take us seriously when we tell them."

"It's a chance we'll have to take; we can't just ignore things," the tactician replied.

"I can only wish you luck in this endeavour," Seisu stepped back from Patrick. "Do you feel better?" she asked the knight.

"Yes, I do, thank you," he replied with a smile.

"Good," Seisu smiled.

Yuko sat back on the couch and sighed, "Are you going to be leaving tomorrow?" she asked.

"We'll see how we're feeling in the morning. But we won't stick around too much longer." Luke replied. "Within three days we'll be heading back home, at least." He felt it would be unreasonable to stay any longer than that; it should be enough time to heal from their battles.

"That is a good thing," Koran said as he returned to the home. "The elders are grateful that you killed the morphs but the people here are still uneasy when there are outsiders here. It was the same when Renault lived among us."

"We don't want to overstay our welcome," Quana admitted.

"You haven't yet, just rest and we can prepare a meal," Koran said before he moved to the kitchen.

"Excuse us," Seisu said before she followed after her husband.

"Your parents certainly are very kind," Luke commented to Yuko with a chuckle.

Yuko smiled, "thanks."

"Though we won't trouble you much longer, just until we get back on our feet. We don't want to push ourselves," he added after his compliment.

"You're no trouble," Yuko said. "It's nice to finally meet someone new from the outside world."

"Your people don't get much contact with the outside world, do they?" Quana questioned.

"We haven't left the island since we arrived over 800 years ago," Yuko replied. "We came from a world rampant with prejudice against race so even now we're afraid of what the people of Elibe will do if they see us."

"Well we're probably not better, all things considered. I mean the Scouring all but banished dragons from the continent," Luke mused.

"It would be hard to tell. Most of our ancestors probably feared the dragon's strength and that's why they started that war," Quana said.

"Maybe they won't be so angry about man-sized animal people," Patrick said.

"That's true, and dragons weren't exactly known to be friendly either. A peaceful people probably stand a much better chance," the tactician agreed.

"I can hope..." Yuko said.

*a few days later...*

Luke had made triple sure that they had everything they needed before they headed out. It had been an interesting time, to be sure, but they needed to get on home now and make sure people knew about the Morphs that would no doubt be posing a problem very soon.

"Thank you again for being so hospitable to us." Quana said as she, Patrick and Luke stood outside Yuko's home, ready to depart. "We really appreciate it."

"It wasn't too much trouble," Seisu said with her happy smile. "How will you get back to the mainland?"

"We'll be taking a boat. It's how we got here and we'll head home the same way," Patrick replied simply.

"You sailed here on your own?" Yuko's eyes widened in surprise.

"I thought the legends of danger sailing to this island were still widespread, because you're the first visitors we've had in over a century," Koran commented.

"Well...I wouldn't say we sailed here all on our own. We did have a bit of help," Luke admitted with a sheepish chuckle. "And yeah, a lot of people tend to avoid this place because of those old stories, but this place isn't as bad as the legends say." It had been a theory of his that the main reason most people feared this place was because it was Nergal's base of operations and the Black Fang had made their home here for a while as well. Sailing here wasn't the difficult part, it was returning alive that was.

"Then we wish you a safe journey. Would you like a guide back out of our forests?" Koran offered.

"Well that'd help us not get lost like we did last time. Yuko was the one who lead us here and I'm not sure we'd be able to remember the way back," Quana said thoughtfully.

"Of course I can." Yuko hugged her parents and gave them both a kiss on the cheek before she headed out the door, "Come on, don't want to keep your ride waiting," she insisted.

"Alright, alright!" Luke said with a chuckle. "We're coming! Thank you again! Goodbye!" The trio bid their final farewells before they followed Yuko out into the forests.

Yuko stayed on the ground the whole way, her wings tucked around her back as she led them out of the thick forest.

"Is that your boat that way," Yuko asked as she peered out at a tiny dot on the shoreline.

"You can see it from this far away?!" Patrick asked, sounding both surprised and impressed.

"Got it from my dad, eagle's eyes," Yuko replied with a smirk.

"That's some freaky eyesight but yes, that's our boat alright." Luke replied with a grin. "She's a sturdy vessel, even if she's on the small side."

"Well then, let's go," Yuko said as she hopped in place.

It didn't take them too long to reach the shorelines once again, idly chatting amongst each other as they walked. As they approached, they could see the boat was in fine condition and Luke was certain it wouldn't have any problems with getting back across the ocean.

"Well, this is it," he said, turning to Yuko. "Once we get the ship ready to go, we'll be off to sea again."

"I hope I don't get seasick, but I guess I can always go for a fly if my stomach gets upset," Yuko said as she looked up and down the boat in front of them.

"Eh? What are you talking about? Don't you have to stay here with your folks?" Quana asked, perplexed.

Yuko unfolded her wings from her back, revealing that she was wearing a traveller's pack on her back. "While you were staying with us I heard so much about the world, and after fighting those morphs I just can't stay put on this island. I want to go back to the mainland with you and help fight whatever is creating these things. Everyone else thinks the danger is gone but... the elders decided not to mention the humans we saw that might be controlling the morphs to avoid a panic. I can't just sit at home knowing what's going on in the world."

This definitely took the trio by surprise, evident from the dropped jaws and wide eyes. Luke was the first one to recover his composure, shaking his head a bit to rid himself of the shock. "So that's why you were so eager about getting us to leave the village..." he commented. It seemed obvious in retrospect. "Though did you talk about it with your parents? Your people are going to wonder where you disappeared to once they realize you're gone and they might think we kidnapped you or something if you left without a word."

"I spoke with my parents and they spoke with the elders, mom and dad even helped me pack after they got a look at what you packed," Yuko replied. "No one will worry, I promise."

"Well, after you went through all that trouble, it'd just be rude to say no. You really know how to make sure you get what you want, don't you?" the tactician remarked with an amused chuckle.

"I don't have a problem with Yuko coming along, but..." Quana frowned a bit. "Speaking realistically here, people back home are going to react strongly once they see her, and very badly at that. She's basically a humanoid talking pegasus; that's not something people see every day. I don't know how good your people are with magic, Yuko, but maybe there's something that you can use to make yourself look more...human? Just for the sake of keeping you from getting attacked by people who'd get the wrong impression."

"I'm not good with that kind of disguise spell, and the elders said that we may not be able to remain hidden much longer, and just one of us with limited power going ashore would be less threatening than older ones with greater power being seen. As for how people will react..." Yuko thought for a moment, "Honestly the best Idea I have it so wear a hood and keep my wings folded for a while. I don't think there is a spell to make me look human enough for this."

"I guess if that's the best we can do, we'll just have to work with it." the archer girl relented.

"It should be alright. People won't freak out too badly if they realize that she doesn't mean any harm," Luke assuaged her.

"I hope you're right..."

"Good, then let's go," Yuko stepped towards the ship and walked up the gangplank, her hooves making audible clopping sounds as she walked up the hard wood.

The trio followed her, ready to once more pilot the ship back home. Patrick headed towards the ship's wheel, taking up position as the captain, while Quana took out her bow and took aim at the rope they had used to moor the boat to land. With a moment to aim, she released the arrow, cutting the rope and setting them adrift. Drawing his fire tome, Luke used his magic to create propulsion for the ship to begin moving and soon, they were sailing away from the Dread Isle.

"Alright, let's hoist the sail!" Luke remarked.


End file.
